MEMOIR OF 



Ebenezer Thresher, 



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:Y HENRY F. COLBY, 




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A TRIBUTE 



TO THE MEMORY OF 



hbei^ezer S^res^er. 



HENRY F. COLBY, D. D., 

Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Dayton, Ohio. 



DAYTOX, OHIO: 
Press of clipiteS Sret^rei? P'ublis^i^g Hoa: 
1886. 




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Ebenezer Thresher. 



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^MPBENEZER THRESHER was born in Stafford, 
Connecticut, on the thirty-first day of August, 
1798. His ancestors on his father's side, he 
thought, were of German descent. His grandparents 
were Christopher Thresher, who died in 1779, and Thank- 
ful Thomas. These had eight , children, of whom the 
third, Ebenezer, married Hannah, the daughter of Joshua 
Blodgett. The Blodgetts are said to have descended 
from French Huguenots. Hannah Blodgett's mother 
was an Alden, and her lineage is traceable to John 
Alden of the Mayflower. The subject of this memoir 
was the ninth of the twelve children of Ebenezer and 
Hannah Blodgett Thresher. Of these children two died 
in childhood. The remainder grew up and lived to a 
good old age. 

A few years before his death, at the earnest request 
of the writer, and for the gratification of his family, 
Mr. Thresher wrote down some memoranda of his early 
life. Concerning this period, therefore, it will be in- 
teresting to let the narrative proceed substantially in 



his own language. Only those verbal changes have 
been made which seemed desirable to adapt the paper 
to its present use, and which, it is believed, he would 
himself have approved. 

He says : " My family were among the virtuous poor. 
My father was bred to the business of farming, and 
owned a farm. He possessed a good constitution and 
had a well -developed physical frame. He was also a 
man of great strength. By excessive labor, however, 
in the heat of summer he broke down, and was after- 
ward afflicted with asthma in its most distressing form, 
which disqualified him for active labor. His feeble 
health, with a young and numerous family, compelled 
him to borrow money for their support, so that his es- 
tate in a few years became loaded with mortgages for 
all -it was worth. The condition of the family ren- 
dered it necessary for my two elder brothers, as soon 
as they were able to earn something, to go from home, 
for the purpose of redeeming the farm, the scanty pro- 
duct of which was the family's only means of support. 
Meanwhile I was left with the care of the farm and of 
the family at the age of twelve years, with such as- 
sistance as my sisters, older than myself, could give me. 
My mother was a woman of delicate health. She was 
a member of a Baptist church. She first united with 
the Baptist Church in the adjoining town of Willington, 
at a distance from her home of eight or ten miles, but 
when the Baptist Church in Stafford was organized, in 



1809, she became a constituent member of it. "My father 
never united with any church, but was. I believe, for 

many years before his death, a Christian man. He was a 
man of great courage, but of tender feelings and refined 
sensibilities. He was just and honorable in all his deal- 
ings, and particularly regardful of the rights of others. 
My parents were intelligent for their opportunities and 
gave their children all the advantages that their means 
would allow. We had a village school three months in 
summer for small children, taught by a school - mistress. 
and one three months in the winter taught by a mas- 
ter. In these schools no branches were taught but 
reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic as far as the 
Rule of Three. I attended school for the most part 
three months in each year, but such were my engross- 
ments until I was eighteen years of age. and so ex- 
cessive were my cares and labors for one of my age, 
that I had little time for thought or study except in 
these school -hours. Sunday-schools had not yet been 
established in that part of the country. As we lived 
four and six miles distant from any regular places 
of worship, my attendance at Sabbath -services was ex- 
tremely irregular. Even if I had had more leisure, 
there was nothing in my circumstances to lead me to 
literary pursuits, even to reading. I do not recollect 
to have seen, until I was eighteen years of age. any 
other books besides my school-books, the Bible. Pil- 
grim's Progress, and AVatts' Psalms and Hymns. The 



6 

population was sparse, and all the people, being rela- 
tively poor, were, like myself, engrossed in providing 
for themselves the necessary means of living. 

" It had been arranged that I should be released 
from the care of the family at the age of eighteen, 
and that I should then be entitled to my own earn- 
ings, an elder brother then taking my place in the 
household. The winter of 1817 was to be my last at 
the neighboring school and in the shelter of my pa- 
ternal home. In the following spring I was expecting 
to embark on the sea of life, sailing by my own com- 
pass. It seemed to me to be a vast ocean, and in 
what port I might land was to me a matter of the 
utmost uncertainty. And yet I was hopeful. I felt a 
persuasion that there was some place for me in the 
world. But it was during that winter or early in 
the following spring that I experienced a great change 
in my religious views and feelings. Up to that period 
I do not recollect to have had any decided convic- 
tions of my sinfulness in the sight of God. During 
this entire winter I had more or less of this feeling, 
which culminated in very great distress of mind. It 
led me to seek refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ. I 
know of no instrumentality employed in producing this 
change but the Spirit of God. The realization %o which 
I have alluded, that I had reached a critical point in 
my life, had made me thoughtful and somewhat so- 
licitous, and God was pleased in his infinite goodness 



to send to me his Spirit to be my guide. He had 
prepared a shower of divine grace for that region of 
country, which was poured out in great abundance. 
It seems to have been bestowed in answer to the 
united prayers of three individuals. It transpired that 
two female members of the Baptist Church and one 
male member of a Methodist Church held by agree- 
ment a prayer -meeting to pray for a revival of re- 
ligion. My own mother was one of the number and 
her brother was another. This prayer -meeting was un- 
known to me, and, as far as I was ever informed, to 
all but themselves. They were led to hold it by their 
reflections on the low state of religious feeling in the 
community. Another young -man in the neighborhood 
had been converted before I was ; but this fact also 
was unknown to me at the time. 

" A desire was soon expressed for meetings to be 
held at private houses. These became frequent, then 
were held every night and were attended by large 
numbers. More would assemble than could find seats 
or standing room in the house, many gathering 
around the door -way and windows. Conversions be- 
came frequent, and the meetings were carried on chiefly 
by those recently converted. Great quietness and so- 
lemnity prevailed. The small Baptist church at Staf- 
ford was at this time without a pastor and had no 
public house of worship. They held occasional meet- 
ings in private houses in a distant part of the town 



8 

where most of the members resided. This revival soon 
extended into contiguous neighborhoods and into ad- 
joining towns, but was confined mostly to rural dis- 
tricts remote from the centers of population and among 
people who had seldom attended religious worship. My 
time during these months was given up to attendance 
on these meetings, in which I generally participated 
with others in reading the Scriptures, singing, prayer, 
and exhortation. 

"The change which I had experienced in my re- 
ligious views and this engrossment in meetings, in 
which the object particularly sought was the conversion 
of others, altered entirely the plan of my life. Hither- 
to I had been considering only how I could advance 
my own personal interests. Now my study was how 
to do the most good to others. I had evidence that 
I had a treasure in heaven upon the possession of 
which I should soon enter. Time seemed short and 
precious. I had food and raiment (although I was 
poorly clad) and was therewith content, for it seemed 
to me altogether uncertain whether I should need any- 
thing more. I was received into the fellowship of the 
small church in Stafford by baptism in March, 1817. 

"The time set for my leaving home had already 
passed, but I felt a reluctance to leave scenes which had 
been so intensely interesting to me. About the first of 
April I hired myself out to a neighboring farmer for 
the coming season at twelve dollars a month. Richard 



Gardner, my employer, and his amiable wife were pious 
people. They were very considerate of me and ex- 
tremely kind. This season of easy cares and moderate 
labor was for me a period of intense study how I 
could best subserve the interests of the kingdom of 
Christ. I became very sensible of my need of more 
learning than I then possessed, the attainment of which 
I determined should be my. first object of pursuit. 
This to me in my ignorance and indigence was a 
pretty heavy undertaking. I knew almost nothing of 
institutions of learning or of the methods of educa- 
tion. I resolved to lay aside my earnings for a few 
years and then expend them in obtaining instruction. 
Having obtained through a friend employment in the 
city of New Haven at better wages than I could ob- 
tain nearer home, I left for that city in the early 
spring of 1818, with my extemporized knapsack con- 
taining my wardrobe of homespun. I made the jour- 
ney of sixty miles on foot in two days. My employer 
had a small farm adjacent to the city, of which I was to 
have the care. After fulfilling this engagement, which 
was one of excessive labor, I obtained employment 
with a wealthy gentleman in the city at better wages 
and for easier service. I had the care of his garden 
and of his carriage and horses which I drove when occa- 
sion required. In this family I was treated with kind- 
ness; the lady especially, who was a Christian woman, 
was very considerate toward me. Xo service was re- 



10 

quired of me in the evenings. This enabled me to add 
to my pecuniary resources by sawing wood on moon- 
light evenings. 

"When I came to New Haven I found a small Bap- 
tist church. With this I at once identified myself. 
It consisted of about thirty members, mostly women, 
and all relatively poor. They had no pastor, but as- 
sembled regularly for worship in a small hired room 
owned by a Congregational church. This was then the 
only Baptist church in the city. We succeeded in or- 
ganizing a Sunday-school, and during the two years 
I lived there I think the church had some substantial 
growth. When I left I succeeded in sending them a 
pastor, Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, whose ministry was 
greatly blessed in building up the Baptist cause in 
New Haven. He came from the church in Stafford, 
where he had been ordained as pastor, a year or two 
before. After leaving New Haven he was pastor at 
Troy, New York, and then for twenty -two years was 
secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission So- 
ciety. 

"By this time my knowledge of the world had be- 
come somewhat enlarged, and I had learned something 
by reading. The Bible, however, was my chief book of 
study. I had never had the opportunity of mingling 
with people of literary tastes and acquirements; and 
in those days facilities for acquiring knowledge were 
limited. The days of my childhood and youth were 



11 

passed before there was a religious newspaper published 
in the country. The Baptist people with whom I as- 
sociated did not appreciate the advantages of a liberal 
education for the ministry. The Baptist minister with 
whom I was most intimate stoutly opposed my plan 
of seeking an education, and told me, as his last ar- 
gument, that he once knew a young man who entered 
upon a course of college education for the ministry 
but died before he had completed it, This considera- 
bly affected me. It even influenced my dreams. I 
once dreamed of passing through the article of death. 
By prayerful thought, however, I rose above this diffi- 
culty. 

"I did not at first anticipate a collegiate education. 
My age — I had now entered my twenty -second year — 
and my lack of early advantages seemed to preclude 
it, I concluded to seek the guidance of a private 
teacher, and preferred a minister of the gospel. I had 
heard of Rev. Jonathan Going, the pastor of the Bap- 
tist church in Worcester, Massachusetts, as a man of 
liberal education and interested in young men. I de- 
termined to apply to him for instruction. Having re- 
turned to my native place, I traveled on foot from 
Stafford, Connecticut, to Worcester, Massachusetts, a dis- 
tance of about thirty miles, on the nineteenth day of 
April, 1820." 

From these personal reminiscences it will be seen 
that a burden of care and anxiety rested upon Mr. 



12 

Thresher's youth. But these seemed only to develop 
the independence and energy of his character. He illus- 
trated the saying that for noble and ambitious natures 
hardships in youth are like the walls of a cannon 
giving direction and effectiveness to the force which 
they inclose and restrain. Among the influences Avhich 
shaped his character we discern also that mother's 
earnest piety, which led her to join with her brother 
and neighbor in petitions for an outpouring of the 
Holy Spirit, petitions that were rewarded by the re- 
ligious revival of the whole community and especially 
by the conversion of her own boy. How many forces 
for good in this world are traceable to maternal coun- 
sels and prayers! And how does that little and humble 
prayer -meeting illustrate the small and often unseen 
beginnings from which in God's providence large issues 
spring ! Moreover, we are reminded here how awaken- 
ing and enlarging to the mind is often the effect of a 
thorough conversion of the heart to Christ! A new and 
exalted motive is thus realized which, if humbly fol- 
lowed, develops the man's best powers, and guides him 
into paths of broader usefulness. As from the church 
in Stafford, feeble enough in that day, came Ebenezer 
Thresher, so from many other country churches, where 
hard -working but intelligent people have feared God 
and studied their Bibles, have come men whose poAver 
has been felt as conscientious and earnest workers in 
the church or in the state. This not only commends 



religion and gives great encouragement to boys of ap- 
parently few advantages, but it is an incentive to re- 
ligions effort in rural communities. These may be 
inconspicuous but sure sources to supply leaders for 
many a noble cause. While our cities clamor for evan- 
gelization, it is the part of Christian wisdom to sow 
broadcast gospel truth and strong convictions in coun- 
try places also. Hoav little our subject knew what 
was before him when he started out from his home ! 
A Christian engraver has said that the great impres- 
sion of his life was made by a print of a boy with a 
bundle on his back leaving home, while God's Spirit 
asks, "Whither?" Happy the youth who, like the sub- 
ject of these pages, going forth • to untried scenes, in- 
vokes that Spirit to be his guide ! It is remarkable that 
he should have formed so clear and strong a desire for 
an education when there was absolutely nothing, as far 
as we can see, in his environment to awaken or encour- 
age it. His choice of a church in Xew Haven, where 
other denominations had so much strength, evinced the 
independence and firmness of his doctrinal convictions, 
while his consecration to his divine Master was mani- 
fested and developed by the humble work he tried to 
do in his name. 

He subsequently visited his early home only at long 
intervals. The following extract taken from a letter 
written to his brother James in 1829 has now a pa- 
thetic interest: "On a certain morning I was rilled 



14 

with a peculiar sensation at the sight of father as I 
viewed him at a distance, from the. eminence north of 
the house, which you will readily call to mind. I saw 
him an old man leaning upon his staff. I reflected 
upon his hardships and his sickness, and from this I 
reflected upon the toils, the hardships, and disappoint- 
ments of life generally ; that in a few days I should 
be an old man like my father, or sleeping in my 
grave." His father, here spoken of as so infirm, died 
in 1832, at the age of seventy -six. His mother did 
not die till eight years later, when she was about 
eighty. To his older brothers Mr. Thresher was in- 
debted for kindness and material aid while he was 
struggling to obtain his education. As these left home 
before he did, and before the youngest of the family 
circle were old enough to come to the family table, a 
remarkable occurrence was rendered possible. In 1875, 
when Mr. Thresher visited Stafford for the last time, 
he met and sat down to eat with three sisters and 
two brothers. They had never all sat down to the ta- 
ble together before in their lives, and yet the average 
age of the six was more than eighty years. Three of 
that company are still living. May the smile of Heaven 
rest on their closing years ! 

The day after his arrival at Worcester, Mr. ^Thresher 
commenced the study of geography and English gram- 
mar. He says, continuing his narrative: u Dr. Going 
received me very cordially, and took me into his 



15 

family and promised to give me such instructions as 
his other engagements would allow. I resided with 
him some three or four months. It was a season of 
deepest interest to me, an epoch in the history of my 
life, in which I made great discoveries. There was 
another young man in Dr. Going's family named 
Whitman Metcalf, who, like myself, had sought his in- 
structions. As far as recitations were concerned we be- 
came mutual instructors, for Dr. Going did not much 
relish the drudgery ot recitations. \\ nen I arrived in 
Worcester it was in the aiternoon, the sun being yet 
far up in the heavens. Before the sun went down 
Metcalf invited me to go with him into a distant field 
for prayer. The invitation was cheerfully accepted. 
Metcalf was then a married man and was able to ob- 
tain only a limited education, but he became an emi- 
nently useful Baptist minister. Dr. Going was a good 
adviser but a poor teacher. He was not a man of 
details but of bold conceptions, genial in temperament 
and of boundless benevolence. His conversations and 
advice were of great service to me. I was now brought 
also into an intelligent Baptist community. I attended 
the Baptist ministers' meetings in Worcester County, 
which were very useful to me. While in Worcester I 
supported myself by laboring occasionally for neighbor- 
ing farmers, which enabled me to retain my muscular 
strength. Deacon Stowell remarked to his pastor that 
that student could handle a scvthe better than anv 



16 

man he had before known. While in Worcester my 
mind became enlarged. I was made still more sensi- 
ble of my deficiencies, and I determined to seek a col- 
legiate education. I have never ceased to adore the 
goodness of divine Providence in leading me to Jona- 
than Going, whose intimacy I enjoyed while he lived, 
and who in the later years of his life sought my ad- 
vice as often as I did his." 

It is worthy of note at this point that eleven years 
afterward this same Dr. Going, to whom Mr. Thresher 
here refers so affectionately, after an influential pas- 
torate at Worcester, during which Sunday-schools, for- 
eign missions, and ministerial education found in him 
an earnest advocate, visited Ohio, attended the meet- 
ing of the Western Baptist Convention at Lancaster, 
on May 25, 1831, and rendered useful aid in maturing 
the plans for the establishment of a literary and theo- 
logical institution at Granville. In the conventions of 
1833 and 1834 it was preeminently his counsel and 
influence which shaped and carried the plan for the 
Western Baptist Education Society which was then 
formed. In 1837, after serving for five years as secre- 
tary of the Home Mission Society, he became the sec- 
ond president of Granville, and greatly increased the 
prosperity of that school of Christian . learning. His 
death, in 1844, was regarded as a great loss to Ohio 
Baptists. Possibly his connection with Granville may 
have been among the influences which deepened the 



17 

interest in that college, .since known as Denison Uni- 
versity, which Mr. Thresher afterward manifested, hav- 
ing come to Ohio in the year following Dr. Going's 
death. When, visiting Granville in recent years as an 
aged man, he may have looked upon the monument 
which marks in the college cemetery the grave of his 
early counselor and friend, how must it have brought 
up to his mind those old days at Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, when, a humble, aspirant for Christian learn- 
ing, he first knocked at the good man's door ! Little, 
too, at that early day, did Dr. Going think that he 
was helping to start on his course a friend of educa- 
tion who in future days would not only greatly pro- 
mote that cause at the east, but would come after 
himself and strengthen by his gifts and influence the 
foundations of an institution which the former should 
help establish in this western and then far distant 
state ! Nor let us fail to note that the fellow - student 
Mr. Thresher speaks of as bowing with himself in 
prayer, Whitman Metcalf, afterward manifested a simi- 
lar zeal for the cause of missions and of Christian 
learning. He was recognized as a religious leader in 
western New York, and became widely known through 
a long life as a missionary, a pastor, a builder of 
churches, the secretary of the New York Baptist Con- 
vention, and the financial agent of the New York 
Baptist Education Society. How many streams of en- 
lightening influences have flowed from the con versa- 



18 

tions in his study and at his table of that New En- 
gland pastor with those two poor but earnest young- 
men ! Sir Humphrey Davy said that his greatest dis- 
covery was his pupil, Michael Faraday. Not the least 
among the elements of Dr. Going's usefulness must be 
reckoned the direction he gave to the lives of Whit- 
man Metcalf and Ebenezer Thresher. 

It was soon evident, however, that, with all its ad- 
vantages, Dr. Going's home was not the place to pursue 
classical learning. He therefore sought the instruction 
of Rev. Abiel Fisher, pastor of the Baptist church in 
Bellingham, Massachusetts, who had under his instruc- 
tion several young men whom he was fitting for col- 
lege. With Mr. Fisher he commenced the study of 
Latin. After a few months he determined on another 
change. "I became satisfied," he said, "that my ad- 
vantages in a quiet country town, under a private 
tutor who could give but a limited amount of time 
to his scholars, were not equal to what I could find in 
a good academy. I consequently removed from Bell- 
ingham to Amherst, and entered Amherst Academy 
in the spring of 1821, where I remained in close at- 
tention to my studies until the fall of 1823." This 
academy had been incorporated five years previous. 
Noah AYebster, LL. D., was one of its trustees. He 
was residing at Amherst, engaged in the preparation of 
his great dictionary at the time our subject came to 
the place as a student. Dr. Webster was also active 



19 

as one of the founders and the first president of the 
board of trustees of Amherst College, which was started 
that same year. In another reference to this period 
of his own life Mr. Thresher says: "I early began to 
cherish the hope that I might at some time be per- 
mitted to preach the Gospel. Having in my early 
Christian experience, by a kind of necessity, been called 
into active duty in meetings for worship, I continued 
these habits as opportunities offered during my course 
of education. In Amherst there was at that time no 
Baptist church, but prayer -meetings were maintained 
by students in the academy. Only two young men 
besides myself were Baptists, John Pratt and Ephraim 
Simonds. Pratt and myself were from Connecticut, and 
Simonds from Massachusetts, the son of a Baptist min- 
ister. We all three spent our vacations while at Am- 
herst in assisting feeble churches in adjoining towns." 
The John Pratt he here refers to continued to be 
his classmate until their graduation from college, and 
was the same who afterward became the first presi- 
dent of the Granville Literary and Theological Insti- 
tution in Ohio (now Denison University), and whose 
happy face and patriarchal beard will be readily re- 
called by many readers of these pages. He resigned 
the presidency in 1887, to be succeeded by Dr. Going, 
but continued to work as a vigorous and honored 
teacher in the college till 1859, when he retired to 
private life and lived till 1882. Here again we see 



20 

another of those early associations which had drawn 
Mr. Thresher's attention, even before he came to Ohio, 
to the institution of learning to which he became such 
a friend. Among his other fellow -students in Amherst 
academy at the time referred to, who are worthy of 
note for the record of their after-lives, may be men- 
tioned Prof. E. S. Snell, for fifty -three years one of the 
chief pillars of Amherst College, Dr. Joseph S. Clark, 
for eighteen years secretary of the Massachusetts Home 
Missionary Society, Rev. Stephen Johnson, for twenty 
years missionary to Siam and China, and Rev. Reu- 
ben Tinker, missionary to the Sandwich Islands. 

"In the month of January, 1824," the narrative con- 
tinues, "I entered the freshman class in Columbian 
College, Washington. Two considerations influenced me 
more particularly in selecting this as the place of my 
future studies. One was the prospect of procuring there 
some pecuniary assistance. The other was an oppor- 
tunity of obtaining a better knowledge of the world and 
of the forms and usages of society, in which I knew my- 
self to be sadly deficient. My opportunities for study 
at Amherst were excellent. The academy was then in 
a flourishing condition. Its number of students was 
large, and a considerable portion of them were study- 
ing for the ministry. I was brought into associations 
with persons of literary tastes. Most of the students 
belonged to other denominations, which in many re- 
spects was an advantage to me. Amherst was at that 



21 

time attracting the attention of literary people as a 
seat of learning, and had been selected as the site of 
a college. But I had never been far from home and 
had never been much in cultivated society. Although 
I knew very well that I should be subjected to many 
mortifications, I knew equally well it was the thing I 
needed." 

Another fact which probably had an influence in 
directing Mr. Thresher's steps to Columbian College was 
its connection with the foreign missionary movement, 
which for some years had been awakening great in- 
terest in the Baptist denomination, and especially with 
the name of Luther Rice. It was in 1812, when the 
subject of this memoir was fourteen years of age, that 
this celebrated man and Rev. Adoniram Judson and 
wife had become Baptists while on their way to India, 
sent out by the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions. After they had been baptized by 
English Baptists in Calcutta, it was agreed that Mr. 
Rice, being unmarried, should return to this country 
and urge upon the Baptist denomination the adoption 
of the work of foreign missions which Providence had 
thus so remarkably placed in their hands, while Mr. 
and Mrs. Judson should proceed to locate a mission- 
station among the heathen. Mr. Rice arrived in this 
country early in the autumn of 1818. 

Mr. Thresher says: "A few of our churches had 
been brought into sympathy and co-operation before 



22 

this with our English brethren, who had commenced 
a mission in India in 1793. Two societies had been 
formed, one in Salem and one in Boston in 1812, for 
'propagating the Gospel in India and other foreign 
parts.' These two societies appointed Mr. Rice, on his 
return to this country, as their agent to proceed to 
New York and Philadelphia for the purpose of awaken- 
ing the Baptists to united action for the support of a 
foreign mission. His work resulted in the formation 
at Philadelphia, on the 18th of May, 1814, of the Gen- 
eral Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the 
United States for Foreign Missions, afterward known as 
the Triennial Convention. These were startling events. 
Luther Rice was regarded almost as an angel flying 
through the midst of heaven calling upon Baptists to 
be aware of their opportunity and responsibility. The 
number of Baptist communicants in the United States 
did not then exceed two hundred thousand. Mr. Rice 
had almost unbounded influence over the denomina- 
tion in its comparative feebleness. But he had more 
enterprise than wisdom, and undertook more than one 
man could accomplish. He attempted not only to 
provide means for carrying on foreign missions, but 
also to superintend the educational interests of the 
denomination. When he came home from India, the 
only literary institution of considerable importance in 
the denomination was Brown University, and it was 
still poor. We had in the ministry very few men pos- 



sessing the literary attainments needful - in ;i missionary 
to the heathen. We had no periodical literature to 
speak of. except the Massachusetts Missionary Magazine, 
which had been commenced in 1803. The Christian 
Watchman, the first Baptist weekly paper, was not be- 
gun till ISIS. The entire country was poor, having 
had a national existence of less than half a century. 
during' which period it had passed through two wars." 
Mr. Rice was struck with the dee}) hold which the 
views he had been led to receive had taken on the pop- 
ular mind, hut he found no institution whose special 
mission was to train young men to defend those views 
at home and abroad. A knowledge of Greek and He- 
brew seemed indispensable to those who would translate 
the Scriptures on the foreign field. The conviction thus 
took possession of his mind that the Baptists ought to 
have at least one central theological seminary, and 
Washington City seemed to him to be the place. The 
Baptist General Convention took the new enterprise un- 
der its supervision, and appointed Mr. Rice financial 
agent and treasurer: and thus Columbian College was 
established. It was opened for students in 1822. In- 
deed the missionary movement not only drew the 
churches into closer unity and promoted their devotion. 
but it seems to have been a great stimulus to the 
founding of institutions of learning. Within about ten 
years from the time of the formation of the Baptist 
General Convention and the rise of missionary zeal, no 



24 

less than five Baptist institutions of learning, which 
have grown into colleges and theological seminaries, 
were founded : at Hamilton, New York, 1819 ; Water- 
ville, Maine, 1820; Washington, District of Columbia, 
1822; Georgetown, Kentucky, 1824; Newton, Massachu- 
setts, 1825. When the last named was founded the 
theological department in Columbian College was no 
longer thought necessary. It must be noted how the 
development of one part of the work of Christ's serv- 
ants in the world always quickens every other part, 
and especially how obedience to his Great Commission 
quickens the whole. 

The events referred to made a deep impression up- 
on Mr. Thresher's thoughtful mind, as the news was 
from time to time discussed among the Baptists of his 
acquaintance. "Mr. Rice," he says, "rendered eminent 
service to the denomination and deserves to be held 
in grateful remembrance by us. He was the means of 
calling out a great many young men into the pursuit 
of learning and the service of Christ. A large com- 
pany by his instrumentality were brought into Colum- 
bian College from the north and from the south." It 
will be observed that the college was opened only a 
year or two before Mr. Thresher completed his prepar- 
atory studies at Amherst. 

In a letter written to his brother just after his ar- 
rival at Washington, he congratulates himself on the 
speed of his journey. It had taken him three days 



25 

from New Haven. '•Probably/' he says, "there are not 
elsewhere as good facilities for traveling the same dis- 
tance as between Washington and Boston. With the 
exception of a few miles of land carriage, there is steam- 
boat communication from Baltimore to Xew York City ; 
thence to New Haven. 1 ' He was pleased with his re- 
ception and with the men with whom he was brought 
in contact. The eloquent Dr. William Staughton, who 
had been so long a pastor in Philadelphia, was presi- 
dent of the college. Irah Chase, Alva Woods, William 
Ruggles, and Alexis Caswell were professors while he 
was there. James D. Knowles and Thomas J. Conant 
gave instruction as tutors. Among his fellow -students, 
who have since been well-known and honored in the 
denomination, were Robert W. Cushman, Baron Stow, 
R. B. Howell, Joseph T. Robert, Robert Ryland, and John 
Pratt. The last named was his room-mate. When he 
entered college James Monroe was president of the 
United States. He must have witnessed the enthusi- 
astic reception given to LaFayette in Washington in 
1^:24. Before he left Washington, John Quincy Adams 
had succeeded to the presidency. "I more than real- 
ized," he whites, "the social advantages which I had 
anticipated by my residence in Washington. The op- 
portunity given to the students occasionally for visit- 
ing Congress and the sessions of the Supreme Court 
was of great advantage to me I enjoyed especially 
my visits to the latter. John Marshall, of Virginia, 



26 

was then Chief Justice. The dignity of the judges, the 
courteous manners of the advocates, and the supremacy 
of law greatly impressed me. In my first year in col- 
lege Henry Clay was speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives; and I heard Daniel Webster, then a new 
member, make his maiden speech in favor of render- 
ing assistance to the Greeks. Both houses of Congress 
at that period contained a large number of men of dis- 
tinguished ability. 

"The first year I was in college the Christian stu- 
dents brought the slaves of all ages into the college 
chapel from the neighboring plantations, by the per- 
mission of their masters, for a Sunday-school. The 
second year of my college life I was invited to super- 
intend a colored Sunday-school, taught by benevolent 
white people in the city, numbering about five hun- 
dred of all ages. This school I continued to superin- 
tend as long as I stayed in Washington. My first 
vacation I spent by invitation in the family of a 
planter in the vicinity of the college, and held re- 
ligious services in a deserted Episcopal house of wor- 
ship in the neighborhood. I conducted these in my 
own way, and had for my hearers the ' families of 
neighboring planters and some genteel families from 
the city who were residing in the country. I was 
occasionally invited to their houses to dine. My con- 
gregation was facetiously called by some of my fellow- 
students my 'flock of goats.'" 



27 

In addition to these labors in the cause of Christ, 
while he was a student, Mr. Thresher spent his second 
summer vacation in a tour on horse -back, for his 
health, in the upper counties of Virginia, among the 
Baptist churches of that region, in company with his 
fellow -student, Baron Stow. The following letter from 
Dr. Stow, written nearly thirty years afterward, will be 

of interest : 

"Boston, 24 March, 1855. 
"My Dear Brother: 

"Pardon me if I presume a little on the basis of old friendship, 
and write more to gratify myself than to benefit you. The older I 
grow the more my heart reverts to the dear friends of my former 
days and finds pleasure in recollecting the scenes with which we were 
jointly familiar. 

"Daid aside from labor by the loss of my voice, I have been perus- 
ing my journal of thirty years ago. Under date of February 16, 1825, 
I find a record of your first visit, by my introduction, to the Fenner 
family. Do you remember it? Of course you do, for 'thereby hangs a 
tale ' My record sa}'s that Miss Fenner and Miss FHza were at that 
time deeply serious, inquiring the way of eternal life. Oh, how fresh 
is my recollection of that evening spent in what I regarded as the 
most religious family that I knew in Washington! 

"On the 28th of April following you and I started for Upperville, 
Virginia. We stopped the first night at Mr. Hixson's, Dover Mills. 
At Upperville we found a home at Dr. Smith's. On the Sabbath you 
preached, and I preached, and old Father Datham preached, in the old 
barn -like meeting-house in the oak grove The next day, with Dr. 
Smith, his son Adolphus, Mr. Wright, and Mr. Wilkinson, we started 
for Harper's Ferry, passing through the Blue Ridge by Snicker's Gap 
and the Devil's Race -ground, and thence down by Shanondale Springs, 
along that beautiful valley of the Shenandoah. You remember how 
we carved our names on Jefferson's Rock at Harper's Ferry, and how 
we attended the monthly concert of prayer in the evening, and what 
wonders of nature and art we visited the next morning, and how, on 
our homeward way, we parted from our associates at Hillsboro, and 



28 

proceeded down to Swann's farm and passed the night with Charles F. 
Wood, and breakfasted on Wednesday with that antinomian old hunker, 
Elder Gilmore, at L,eesburg, and, passing by the Potomac Falls, reached 
College Hill in the evening. 

(, my brother, how little we then anticipated what we have since 
witnessed and felt! We were then young; now we are growing old 
How many the changes in thirty years! Do you wish to return and 
begin anew? I do not. I have lived very imperfectly, but I have 
no confidence that if the experiment were allowed, I should live bet- 
ter. God has been good to me, and his continued grace is my only 
hope. * * * * * *. 

"With affectionate esteem, 

"Your friend and brother, 

"Baron Stow." 

In 1826 Columbian College fell into great financial 
embarrassments, and its students felt compelled to seek 
admission into other institutions. Mr. Thresher, for this 
reason, applied for entrance into the junior class of 
Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where 
he was received in June, 1826. A certificate given him 
at this time by the Education Committee of the Board 
of the General Convention, under the auspices of which 
Columbian College had been conducted, says: "We cer- 
tify that the wdiole conduct of Mr. Thresher w T hile at 
the college has been, to the best of our knowledge, 
highly exemplary and worthy of universal approba- 
tion." This is signed by Luther Rice and by Dr. 0. B. 
Brown, who was for more than forty years pastor of 
the First Baptist Church in Washington. In this con- 
nection also we may quote from some recently written 
reminiscences by Dr. Robert Ryland. "I was thrown," 
he says, "into close intimacy with Mr. Thresher at Co- 



29 

lumbian College. His entire college life was one of 
industry, fidelity, and usefulness. He impressed my 
mind very distinctly as more placid in temper, more 
conciliatory in manners, more used to society, and bet- 
ter prepared for college than the average student. I 
loved him at once for his accessible, sincere, ingenu- 
ous, and transparent nature. And all my study of his 
character since has only intensified my love into ad- 
miration. As he was in the class below me, I could 
form no definite idea of his scholarship. But in his 
chapel declamations and in his Enosinian speeches I 
was struck with his clear voice, his distinct enuncia- 
tion, and his earnest manner, and predicted for him a 
brilliant career as a pulpit orator. • How grieved was I 
afterward to learn that aphonia had closed his pulpit 
efforts forever ! " For the writer of these fondly appre- 
ciative words Mr. Thresher always cherished the highest 
esteem, and took great delight, a few years before his 
death, in receiving a visit from him. when they re- 
viewed together the memories of their college days. 
■'Your conversion while in college," he afterward, in 
1882, wrote to Dr. Ryland, "drew you very near to us, 
and nothing has ever occurred in our long lives to 
sever or even to weaken those ties. Very just is your 
appreciation of Pratt. He was a true man and a de- 
voted Christian. It has long been my happiness to 
meet him once a year, and if I shall be permitted 
to go up to Granville again I shall miss his venerable 



30 

form and hearty greetings. Thomas Powell died about 
one year ago in Illinois. He was an eminently useful 
minister of the gospel and died much respected and 
lamented. Only three of the college -mates — as far as 
I am informed — remain, you and Joseph T. Robert and 
myself." 

Mr. Thresher's transfer to Brown University brought 
him into relations with another group of leading men. 
His path in life seems to have been ordered so as to 
give him an unusually large and valuable acquaint- 
ance. Dr. Messer was at that time the president, but 
he resigned at the close of that summer term. Rev. 
Francis Wayland was called to succeed him from the 
pastorate of the First Baptist Church in Boston. Mr. 
Thresher graduated in 1827, a member of the first 
senior class which enjoyed Dr. Wayland's instructions 
and went forth to their work in life with his benedic- 
tion. Messrs. De Wolf, Parsons, Woods, Bowen, Gocl- 
dard, and Elton were professors whose teaching gave 
character and reputation to the college. Dr. Stephen 
Gano still ministered to the old First Baptist Church 
in Providence, but was approaching the end of his 
long pastorate of thirty -six years. Among those 
who were Mr. Thresher's fellow -students at Brown, 
may be mentioned Gov. John H. Clifford* of Massa- 
chusetts, Dr. John Pratt, and Hon. Charles Thurber, 
who were his classmates, and Gov. Samuel Coney of 
Maine, Gov. Elisha Dyer of Rhode Island, Dr. 



31 

George I. Chace, and Hon. B. F. Thomas, judge of the 
Supreme Court of Massachusetts, who were in the classes 
below him. In a letter written to his brother, near 
the close of his college course, he speaks of being ab- 
sent from Providence five weeks, during which he made 
a trip to Schenectady and West Point. "I was de- 
lighted," he says, " with my visit to West Point. I was 
with very agreeable company, and we were all partially 
acquainted with Prof. Mcllvaine, who had formerly re- 
sided in Georgetown, District of Columbia, and who 
received us very politely." This trip was taken, he 
says, in consequence of his being in poor health. There 
are other indications in his memoranda of interruptions 
and hinderances from poor health' during his studies, 
although he lived so long. The Prof. Mcllvaine, to 
whom he refers, afterward became' the well-known 
bishop of that name in the Episcopal Church. 

"The day of my graduation," he says, "formed an 
important crisis in my life. I had now entered upon 
the thirtieth year of my age. I had already chosen 
my profession. I had a desire for a full course in a 
theological institution, but considering my age and the 
long time I had been anticipating the active duties of 
the ministry, I concluded to remain one year as a 
post-graduate, under the instruction of Dr. Wayland, 
and then do the best I could with what attainments 
I might have. My pecuniary necessities also influenced 
me in my decision. I had devoted more than eight 



32 

years to study and had expended, in addition to the 
small amount of my previous earnings, five hundred 
and fifty -five dollars. Of this, two hundred dollars had 
come from my brother, fifty from an unknown friend, 
ninety -six from the Education Committee of the Bap- 
tist Triennial Convention, and two hundred and nine 
from the American Education Society, which Rev. Elias 
Cornelius, the secretary, had kindly proffered me. The 
amounts from my brother and from the American Edu- 
cation Society I considered as borrowed and as within 
my reach to return. I paid them as soon as I was able, 
with interest. The other amounts I regarded as im- 
posing on me a still more sacred obligation to dis- 
charge as opportunity might offer." 

A few days after his graduation Mr. Thresher was 
married to Miss Elizabeth Fenner. Born in Canterbury, 
England, and bereaved of her mother in infancy, she 
and her older sister had been brought by their father to 
this country when she was three years old. They then 
settled near Poughkeepsie, New York. The father died 
soon after, leaving his young daughters provided with 
means of support, but among comparative strangers. 
They were kindly received into a family of Friends by 
the name of Draper, who were without children, who 
tenderly cared for them and whose memory was affec- 
tionately cherished by them through life. They became 
members of the Dutch Reformed Church in Pough- 
keepsie, then under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Cuyler, 



33 

who afterward became pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church in Philadelphia. They were residing in Wash- 
ington with their brother, who was acting as chaplain 
in the United States Navy Yard, when Mr. Thresher 
first made their acquaintance. He was then a student 
in Columbian College, and Miss Fenner was one of the 
teachers in a colored mission -school, of which he was 
the superintendent. She became engaged to him when 
she was on a visit to friends in Providence in the 
summer of 1826. She was probably one of that "very 
agreeable company" with whom he made his trip to 
West Point. Their marriage took place in the city of 
New York on the thirteenth day of September, 1827. 
Either before or soon after her marriage, Mrs. Thresher 
became a member of the Baptist Church, and heartily 
joined her husband in the chosen work of his life. 
Miss Sarah Fenner never married, but after twice visit- 
ing England, and spending some years there each time 
with an aged aunt, made her home in the family of 
her sister, Mrs. Thresher, and afterward in that of 
her niece, Mrs. Charles H. Crawford, and lived to an 
advanced age, surviving her sister, and afTectionately 
known for "the good works and alms-deeds which she 
did." 

"While a student in Brown University," says Mr. 
Thresher, "I superintended the Sunday-school in the 
First Baptist Church in Providence. While a post- 
graduate student with Dr. Wayland I taught a Bible-class 



34 

of married ladies. We met on a week-day afternoon or 
evening at the houses of the members in rotation. As 
the class was composed of ladies of intelligence, ' the 
exercise became one of great profit to me as well as of 
pleasure. AVhile with Dr Wayland, I had another op- 
portunity for usefulness which has afforded me pleasant 
recollections. Deacon Levi Peirce, residing at Middle- 
borough Four Corners, a center of a somewhat numer- 
ous population, three or four miles distant from any 
place of worship, built at his own expense an academy 
Avhich became a prosperous school, and the building 
was occupied occasionally for a number of years, even- 
ings or Sundays, as a place of worship. After a few 
years, Deacon Peirce became impressed with a sense of 
his duty to build a meeting-house, with a view of col- 
lecting a Sunday-school and also a Baptist church, if 
Providence should favor. This he completed in 1828, 
and invited me and my wife to come and spend a few 
weeks in his family, that I might labor with him in 
gathering and organizing the Sunday-school. We spent 
the week-days in visiting the families in the surround- 
ing country and inviting all the children to come to the 
school to be held on Sundays in the new meeting- 
house, then about completed. On the appointed day 
the school was organized, consisting of one hundred 
and thirty scholars, the sight of whom so overcame 
their generous patron that he wept and sobbed like a 
child. The following Sabbath the new meeting-house 



35 

was to be dedicated. A minister from Boston was ex- 
pected to preach, but for some cause failed to meet his 
appointment, and the duty fell upon me, which was a 
great trial. A large concourse of people had assembled, 
filling the house to its utmost capacity. I did the best 
I could, and to my surprise the people gave me their 
undivided attention, which greatly assisted me. In our 
visits inviting children to the Sunday- school we looked 
up members of Baptist churches residing in the differ- 
ent neighborhoods. The result was that soon after the 
organization of the Sunday-school a Baptist church 
was instituted, which has been a prosperous one to this 
day." 

Peirce Academy, which has become such a well-known 
and useful institution, afterward passed into the hands 
of trustees. An act of incorporation had been obtained 
for this purpose from the legislature of Massachusetts 
in 1835. 

In the autumn of 1828 Mr. Thresher accepted a call 
to become the pastor of the First Baptist Church in 
Portland, Maine, at that time the only Baptist church 
in that city. The call is signed by Alford Richardson 
in behalf of the church, and by Joseph Noble in behalf 
of the society. His salary was fixed at seven hundred 
and fifty dollars, and the expenses of his moving were 
provided. He had been licensed to preach by the 
church in Stafford, Connecticut, in 1823. He was or- 
dained in Portland on December 18th, 1828. Dr. Daniel 



36 

Sharp, of Boston, preached the sermon from Ecclesi- 
astes 12: 10 — u The preacher sought to find out acceptable 
words." Other important parts in the services, as as- 
signed by the council, were the ordaining prayer by 
Rev. David Nutter, of Livermore, and the giving of the 
hand of fellowship by Rev. Alonzo King, of North 
Yarmouth. Both of these names have been fragrant 
in the memory of those who knew them. The latter 
was the author of the Memoir of George Dana Board- 
man. It was especially gratifying to Mr. Thresher that 
the address to the church and society could be made 
by his college friend, Rev. Baron Stow, who had re- 
cently settled at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The 
charge to the candidate was given by Rev. John Butler, 
of Winthrop In his old age this faithful minister 
came to Ohio and died at the home of his son, Mr. 
Charles Butler, of Franklin. Mr. Thresher was one of 
the pall -bearers at his funeral. The sermon by Dr. 
Sharp, together with the other addresses at the ordina- 
ation, was afterward printed by request. The old pam- 
phlet is an interesting memorial of good men, who met 
on earth in their Master's service, but who have now 
entered into his presence above. 

Concerning his brief pastorate in Portland, which was 
his only one, Mr. Thresher modestly says-: "It does 
not seem to me to have been attended by any marked 
success. I was permitted to baptize as the fruit of 
my ministry only ten persons. In some other respects 



I think the church had some visible and permanent 
growth. I succeeded in establishing, by contributing 
largely myself, a tract society, which was much needed 
at that early day. I organized a Bible -class, which I 
taught on a week-day evening, and which bore some 
excellent fruit in after -years. The wife of Rev. Sam- 
uel B. Swaim, a lady of devout piety, was a member 
of that class. My immediate successor, Rev. George 
Leonard, Avhose pastorate was very short, was blessed 
with a powerful revival of religion, as the fruit of 
which more than forty were added to the Church. 
I have cherished the hope that my ministry may have 
contributed a little, by way of preparation, to this 
visitation of the Spirit. While pastor in Portland I 
labored under some serious embarrassments. I was in- 
differently prepared for the work. My limited course 
of education was chiefly elementary, and, although it 
gave me a good foundation for professional studies, 
few attainments had as yet been made. Commencing 
my education so late in life I not only had every- 
thing to learn but much to unlearn. I had many de- 
mands on my time, and was a member of the school- 
committee of Portland. I found also that my voice 
was extremely feeble. The older members of my con- 
gregation complained that they could not hear me. 
By too constant application to books and a neglect, 
in my ignorance, of the laws of health, I had broken 
down in my freshman year in college and had not 



38 

since fully recovered my muscular strength. I was told 
before going to Portland that I would find the church 
a difficult one to please. This caused me some anxiety ; 
but I realized no particular difficulty from this source. 
The church was always courteous to me as their pas- 
tor and exceedingly kind to me and my family. My 
predecessor was settled when a mere youth, and being 
very amiable in disposition had conceded many things, 
which belonged to him as pastor, to the older mem- 
bers of the church. I found in the church when I 
came some discordant elements. A few of the older 
members entertained extreme views on the subject of 
discipline. One expressed to me his opinion that the 
church was in a bad way, that there ought to be more 
frequent meetings for discipline as had been the cus- 
tom formerly, when, if a brother passed another on the 
street without speaking, or if a sister wore ribbons on 
her bonnet, a church -meeting was called to put them 
under discipline. 

"My greatest trial in Portland, which consumed my 
time and drank up my spirit, was sickness in my 
family. My wife was very ill for a whole year, and 
the rigorous climate of Portland had begun to make 
serious inroads upon my own health, inducing disease 
of the throat and lungs. I became satisfied, after a 
residence there of fifteen months, that it was my duty 
to resign and move away. If I had desired, the peo- 
ple would have granted me leave of absence ; but I 



39 

felt satisfied the church needed the active services of 
a pastor, and should choose one as soon as possible. 
Having begged the deacons and the leading members 
of the church to comply with my decision, I offered 
my resignation on Sunday, the 14th of March, 1830. 
At my request the church met on the following even- 
ing, and voted to accept it. On Saturday of the same 
week I left Portland with my family." 

In his diary we find the following entries made at 
this time: 

" March 20. — I leave my friends in tears and in great 
distress. May the Good Shepherd preserve and bless 
these lambs of his flock ! This is a trying day to me. 

" March 21. — We journeyed yesterday as far as Ports- 
mouth, New Hampshire, and have spent the Sabbath 
with my old and dear friend, Baron Stow. The Lord 
is pouring out his Spirit on him and on his people. 
I tried to preach once for him, but found my lungs 
very weak. 

" March 22. — Journeyed as far as Salem. Lodged with 
Brother Babcoek." 

This was Rev. Rufus Babcoek, who had been a tutor 
at Columbian College and was now pastor of the Bap- 
tist Church in Salem. He afterward became president 
of Waterville College. The diary continues : 

u March 26, Charlestowx, Massachusetts. — We find 
ourselves by no means improved by traveling. The 
babe is almost sick. My wife is worse, and I am 



40 

taken violently ill with a fever. This is now the third 
clay I have been confined to my room. Through a 
kind and gracious Providence I am better. Have been 
much distressed both in mind and body, and am sensi- 
ble of great sinfulness. I am much perplexed about 
my future course. Lord, give me repentance for my 
sins and guide me by thy Spirit ! These are memora- 
ble days, days of trial. May God, my heavenly Father, 
graciously sanctify them to me and enable me to adore 
his goodness ! Amen." 

On the 5th of April he was so far recovered that he 
"preached in the morning for Brother Jackson, in the 
afternoon heard Brother Knowles, and in the evening 
preached for Brother Weston." In the following week he 
journeyed to Providence, where he attended the Rhode 
Island Baptist Convention. Thence, having found a 
temporary home for his infant daughter among friends, 
he started with his wife on a journey for their health, 
visiting New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wash- 
ington. In Washington he mentions preaching "at the 
Navy Yard for Brother Rollin H. Neale," who was then 
a senior in Columbian College, but who afterward be- 
came so widely and long known as pastor of the First 
Baptist Church of Boston. He also speaks of seeing 
for the first time Dr. Stephen Chapin, then president 
of the college, and characterizes him as "a grave old 
gentleman." Under another elate he says: "Dr. Semple 
left the city for Fredericksburg. The doctor is a plain, 



41 

straightforward, common -sense man." On their return 
to Philadelphia they worshiped at the churches of Drs. 
Dagg and W. T. Brantly, senior. This trip occupied 
one month, and was greatly beneficial to both invalids. 
Returning to Providence, Mr. Thresher heard Dr. Way- 
land preach the sermon at the ordination of Messrs. 
E. A. Crawley and John Pryor, (both afterward presi- 
dents of Acadia College, Nova Scotia,) and in Boston, 
on the following Sunday, after preaching for Rev. J. D. 
Knowles in the Baldwin Place Church in the morning, 
he witnessed in the evening the setting apart of Messrs. 
Francis Mason and Engenio Kincaid, with their wives, 
as missionaries to Burmah 

Three days later, on the 26th of May, 1830, he was 
elected corresponding secretary of the Northern Baptist 
Education Society. This had grown out of the Massa- 
chusetts Baptist Education Society, which had been 
formed in 1814* by Rev. Messrs. Sharp, Baldwin, Bolles, 
Chaplin, Batchelder and others, which at first had as- 
sisted some theological students under Dr. Chaplin at 
Dan vers, Massachusetts, and which afterward had pro- 
moted the establishment of Waterville College, Maine, 
now Colby University, which opened with Dr. Chaplin 
for its theological teacher in 1818, and of Newton 
Theological Institution, which opened in 1825. The 
necessity had now become apparent of so changing the 



*The year of the first Baptist General Convention. Many kindling 
sparks were blown from that fire. 



42 

form of that society that it might derive means of sup- 
port from all the northern states, even as it received 
beneficiaries from all. The act of incorporation for ' the 
new society bears date March 5th, 1830, and mentions 
the names of Daniel Sharp, Lucius Bolles, Ebenezer 
Nelson, James D. Knowles, Bela Jacobs, Cyrus P. Gros- 
venor, Howard Malcom, Henry Jackson, and John B. 
Jones as corporators. The first annual meeting, at 
which Mr. Thresher was elected corresponding secretary, 
occurred in Boston at the Federal Street Baptist meet- 
ing-house. The active participants were Rev. Lucius 
Bolles, D. D., Rev. E. Nelson, the secretary of the former 
society, Rev John 0. Chowles of Newport, Rev. Mr. 
Chase of Vermont, Prof. H. J Ripley of Newton, Rev. 
J. D. Knowles of Boston, Rev. Mr. Going of Worcester, 
and Rev. Henry Jackson of Charlestown. Dr. Bolles, 
who was the corresponding secretary for the Baptist 
Foreign Missions, a position for which he had been 
prepared by his twenty -two years' pastorate at Salem, 
and his intimate connection with the beginnings of 
that movement, was also elected president of this or- 
ganization. He was succeeded the following year by 
Dr. Sharp. Rev. Bela Jacobs of Cambridge was the 
first vice-president, Rev. Henry Jackson of Charles- 
town secretary, and Mr. John B. Jones treasurer. In 
the list of the first life -members we find the names 
of such noble laymen as Jonathan Bacheller, Ensign 
Lincoln, Nathaniel R. Cobb, Levi Farwell, and Nicholas 



43 

Brown. — names forever inseparable from the history of 
our denomination in New England. The new society 

began with fifty -seven beneficiaries, to be supported at 
an annual expense of four thousand two hundred and 
seventy -five dollars. Its object, which it still pursues, 
was '"'to aid. in acquiring a suitable education, such 
indigent pious young men of the Baptist denomination 
as shall give satisfactory evidence to the churches of 
which they are members, that they are called of God 
to the Gospel ministry." 

Mr. Thresher says: "The conviction that I must give 
up. on account of my ill health, the hope of spending 
my life in pastoral service was the overturning of all my 
long -cherished plans, the relinquishment of a service 
which I consider the most desirable and the most 
exalted with which a mortal can be intrusted. I 
cheerfully accepted the appointment of the Education 
Society as near akin to the pastorate, inasmuch as it 
would prepare others more acceptably to preach the 
Gospel. The work was left chiefly to my own discre- 
tion. The primary object of my appointment was to 
seek out young men having a conviction of duty to 
preach the Gospel, and to aid such as needed assist- 
ance; but I found it necessary also to enter into many 
plans for the encouragement of good learning in the 
Baptist denomination. At that time comparatively few 
of our ministers had enjoyed a collegiate education : 
still fewer a theological one. Prejudices and false senti- 



44 

ments hindered some who would otherwise have sought 
more instruction. Pedobaptists had attached too much 
importance, for that early day, to learning in the min- 
istry ; and persecution had led Baptists to dislike most 
everything which was characteristic of their persecutors. 
Wrong views also existed as to a call to the ministry, 
some thinking that such a conviction must be opposed 
until it becomes altogether irresistible. Some, too, en- 
tertained the false notion that if a man were called 
to preach he would be divinely assisted, when the occa- 
sion came, without any preparation on his part. This 
state of things required great prudence on the part of 
the friends of education, lest they should be misun- 
derstood and excite hurtful opposition to their cause. 
There was, however, now a pretty strong current in 
favor of ministerial education ; and among those who 
favored it, to their honor be it spoken, there were not 
a few who had entered the ministry themselves with- 
out any special literary preparation. Some of these had 
risen to prominence, and were the friends of learning 
because they had felt the need of it." 

Mr. Thresher threw himself into his work with great 
zeal. He traveled among the Baptist churches of New 
England, advocating the cause in public and private. 
As a preacher he had few of what are called popular 
gifts, but was thoughtful and earnest; and in personal 
conversation he acquired a strong influence over many 
minds, stirring them up to the importance of Christian 



45 

culture. His journeys, of course, had to be made chiefly 
by stage or carriage. He was found at the various 
state conventions and associations, making his appeals, 
forming local educational societies, securing scholarships 
and life memberships, and hunting out thoughtful young 
men into whose minds he dropped the seeds of nobler 
ambitions. The following entries in his diary the first 
year give us glimpses of his work : 

"June 1.— Rode to Pomfret. Called on Deacon . 

He says ministers are getting too much power; that no 
man will preach for them short of a thousand dollars 
if things go on in this way ; that the New Testament 
does not require us to educate ministers. 

"June 3. — Attended the Ashford 'Association, held in 
Willington. Found four young men in this association 
who are hopeful candidates for the ministry. 

"Jane 8. — Met with the Baptist Education Society of 
Connecticut. The society is full, with four young men 
under its patronage. Was formed in 1814.* 

"June 22. — Left Boston for New Hampshire. Passed 
through Lowell, Nashua, Amherst, Claremont. 

"June 24. — Attended the convention; formed an edu- 
cation society. On Thursday went to Windsor and made 
Leland Howard a life member. 

"June 30. — Arrived home at Providence. 

"July 3. — Made Thomas P. Ives a life member of the 
societv. 



*The year of the first Baptist General Convention. 



46 

"July 5. — Constituted the first scholarship in Provi- 
dence called scholarship No. 1. May it become one of 
fifty formed in 1830. Lord, dispose the hearts of 
many to this good work ! 

"July 30. — Brother Jones ordained a missionary to 
the heathen, in Brother Malcom's meeting-house, Fed- 
eral Street, Boston. 

" October 3. — Preached in Portsmouth and baptized two 
persons. 

"December 5. — Baptized for Dr. Sharp five persons. 

"January 9. — Preached once for Brother Malcom. 

"January 19. — Obtained five annual subscribers." 

The annual meetings of the society became occasions 
of special interest, when not only were the reports read 
but addresses were made by prominent ministers and 
educators. The secretary improved these occasions to 
discuss the work and enforce its claims. In his first 
report, 1831, he announced that societies for the same 
object which had previously existed, or had been formed 
with his advice during the year in other New England 
states, had become branches. The arrangement was that 
if any branch had more funds than beneficiaries, or 
more applicants for aid than funds, the excess in each 
case should be turned over to the parent society. He 
also used the following language : " It is* not unfre- 
quently the case that a young man cherishes a desire 
to devote his life to the Gospel ministry for years 
without revealing his secret to any one. Such may be 



his indigence and obscurity that, though possessed of 
the genius and piety of a Bunyan, he would subject 
himself to ridicule were he to declare his conviction 
of duty. Such are the men whom this Society proposes to 
adopt as her children. She calls to them in the language 
of the omnipotent Savior to the entombed Lazarus, 
'Come forth.' Suppose they should commence an edu- 
cation with their scanty means, determined to acquire 
it by their industry, as hundreds have done, what a 
considerable portion of their best days by this slow 
process would be lost to the Church ! The labors of 
this society have already saved, unquestionably, to the 
Church many years of valuable ministerial labor." 

By the end of his second year of "work, 1832, he could 
say, "The past year has been one of great success. 
The number of young men who have consecrated their 
lives to the ministry, and are now in a course of edu- 
cation under the patronage of this society, has been 
nearly doubled. One hundred and twenty -nine have 
been assisted. It has also been ascertained that there 
are in Xew England three hundred Baptist young men 
pursuing a course of stud} T preparatory to the ministry. 
The ordinary receipts of the past year exceed the re- 
ceipts of the preceding year by one thousand and 
twenty -two dollars and twenty -seven cents. In several 
associations there are provisions for receiving contribu- 
tions. The various female education societies in differ- 
ent parts of the country form a powerful auxiliary. 



48 

We place great reliance also on young men's education 
societies. The Young Men's Education Society of Bos- 
ton has resolved to support during the current year six 
young men " 

In 1833 he reports one hundred and thirty -eight 
beneficiaries assisted by the society and its branches, 
and says : " We believe it quite possible for a man to 
live and die in neglect of his duty to preach the Gos- 
pel. We believe means are employed by this society 
eminently calculated to arouse such from their slum- 
bers. To assist in acquiring an education any indigent 
young man of correct moral principle is a benefaction 
of a high order ; but when we consider that this bene- 
faction is to be bestowed upon an individual of un- 
doubted piety, who gives evidence moreover that God 
has made it his duty to preach the Gospel, the im- 
portance of the act becomes exceedingly magnified; be- 
cause he is to be exclusively employed in dispensing 
the richest favors which heaven has to bestow on a 
fallen world." In the same report he calls attention to 
the cheering fact that, within the two years preceding, 
funds to a considerable amount had been raised by the 
friends of education toward the establishment of acade- 
mies in different parts of New England ; for one in 
Brandon, Vermont, seventeen thousand dollars • for one 
in Suffield, Connecticut, ten thousand dollars; for one in 
Franklin County, Massachusetts, five thousand dollars ; 
and for one in Worcester County, Massachusetts, five 



49 

thousand dollars. "They are all," he says, "to a cer- 
tain extent on the manual labor system, and have been 
established, though not exclusively for this purpose, yet 
with special reference to the education of young men 
for the Christian ministry. The success of our colleges 
and of Newton Theological Institution will very much 
depend upon the increase and good regulations of these 
preparatory schools." 

It was also in 1833 that he issued a "Pastoral Letter 
to the Beneficiaries, " from the thoughtful sayings of 
which we take the following: "The hoard do not regard 
the annuity which you receive as a charity. Charity is 
the bestowment of favors upon the children of misfor- 
tune for which no equivalent is expected. Neither of 
these elements enter into your case." — "If you should 
at any time find yourselves declining in grace, leave 
all for the moment that you may recover yourselves, 
and come back to the path. Do not natter yourselves 
that it is enough for the present that you are scholars, 
supposing that by and by the duties of your profession 
will possess sufficient influence to regulate the heart!" — 
"It would seem an impeachment of infinite wisdom 
to suppose that a faculty of such astonishing powers 
and capable of such unlimited improvement as the hu- 
man intellect, could not be exercised without breaking 
down that tenement that is fitted up for its accommo- 
dation. If a student would preserve his health he has 
onlv to take heed to those laws which Heaven has es- 



50 

tablished and which every one has the means of know- 
ing." — "A good education consists not so much in a 
knowledge of facts as in the attainment of intellectual 
stature. Learn to think, and think for yourselves." — 
" While I would dissuade you from frequent attempts 
at preaching in the early stages of your education, I 
would apply to each of you with solemn emphasis the 
exhortation of the apostle to Timothy, ' Neglect not 
the gift that is in thee.' Habituate yourselves to efforts 
to do good. Cultivate early a habit of extemporaneous 
speaking on religious topics." — "Pay due attention to 
personal appearance. There should be no semblance of 
foppishness or pride ; but gentility, ease, and affability 
are perfectly compatible with that meekness and sim- 
plicity of character which ought to appear in a min- 
ister of Christ." — "No man in his senses would suppose 
that a few pounds of small iron could be thrown with 
sufficient force to demolish the strong wall of a fortifi- 
cation ; but then, let this little budget be employed in 
spiking the guns, and it might be sufficient to render 
powerless a range of artillery of the requisite force to lav 
the whole defense prostrate. I would say, then, study 
to be strictly accurate in everything." — "The funda- 
mental principle of the Reformation is that the Word of 
God as revealed from heaven, in its exact .proportions, 
and unadulterated with human creeds, is the only rule 
of Christian faith and practice. To maintain our high 
position as a denomination will require that we know 



51 

what the Bible teaches and what it does not teach, 
and it becomes us to advance to the contest with well- 
practiced weapons ; a contest not for the mastery, but 
for the truth." — "I would have you at the same time 
cherish toward all Christians of other denominations 
the most affectionate regards." These fragmentary ex- 
tracts may serve to illustrate the spirit of his counsels, 
which was also the spirit of the man. 

In May, .1834, he mentions that "the school in Suf- 
field, Connecticut, commenced instruction in August. 
The school in Brandon, Vermont, went into operation in 
March. The high -school in "Worcester, Massachusetts, 
will be opened the 4th of June." In regard to the rela- 
tion of such institutions to the state, he says: "Liberty 
to possess and use the requisite funds as voluntary as- 
sociations is all the protection to literary institutions we 
could ask for from legislators, because it is all the pro- 
tection, as we believe, that can be of any service to 
them or to the interests of education as connected with 
them." 

The beneficiary work continued to prosper until in 
May, 1837, the society and its branches had one hun- 
dred and eighty -six young men receiving assistance. For 
the three years previous to this a financial secretary, 
Rev. E. Nelson, had also been employed, and had 
greatly helped on the work. The greatest annual ex- 
penditure by the society and its branches was in the 
year ending in May, 1836; namely, ten thousand two 



52 

hundred and fifty -four dollars and ninety-two cents. 
Then came years of financial depression in the country, 
when most benevolent enterprises suffered. It is worthy 
of note, as the testimony of some experience on a ques- 
tion that frequently arises, that in 1833 the society 
adopted the rule of requiring beneficiaries to give their 
notes, and thus of regarding the amounts furnished to 
them as loans. In 1843 it Avas voted that serving three 
years in the ministry after completing a course of edu- 
cation should cancel a student's note. In 1844 it was 
determined to abandon the note system entirely. Mr. 
Thresher continued in office through that year. It is 
evident that his labors had been extremely useful. It is 
true that when he began the time was ripe for the 
movement, and that all through his term of service he 
had the counsel, co-operation, and support of several 
prominent ministers, and of such laymen as Levi Far- 
well, Ensign Lincoln, Heman Lincoln, and Nathaniel K. 
Cobb. Levi Farwell was deacon of the First Baptist 
Church in Cambridge, and for many years the "steward" 
of Harvard University. Important civil trusts were com- 
mitted to his hands. "He was," says Dr. H. J. Ripley, 
"a man of sound judgment and an example of pure 
and consistent piety. He and his wife can never cease 
to be held in the kindest remembrance." Ensign Lin- 
coln was the head of the publishing house of Lincoln 
and Edmands, but often exercised his gifts by preaching 
to feeble Baptist churches in the vicinity of Boston. 



53 

Dr. Way land said of him : " You may look over a dozen 
cities before you find a man in a private station who 
has cleared away around him so large and so fertile a 
field of usefulness." Heman Lincoln served in the legis- 
lature of Massachusetts, and was the first president of 
the American Baptist Home Mission Society (of which 
•Jonathan Going may be regarded as the founder and 
John M. Peck as the forerunner). He was also one 
of the first promoters of Baptist foreign missions, for 
twenty -two years chairman of the Executive Committee, 
and the constant entertainer of missionaries in his hos- 
pitable home in Boston. It has been said that "the 
cause of Christ was dearer to him than personal repu- 
tation or any earthly good." Nathaniel R. Cobb was a 
young and successful merchant. To his last days Mr. 
Thresher cherished the fondest recollections of these and 
other fellow -laborers, and spoke with deep tenderness of 
his last interview with Mr. Cobb, ("our great patron," 
as he calls him in the annual report which mentions 
his death,) when the latter was confined to his room 
by his last illness and gave expression, in conversation 
with his visitor, to his anticipations of heaven. Mr. 
Cobb was born the same year with Mr. Thresher. His 
remarkable generosity has often been referred to, but a 
brief mention of it here may not be out of place. When 
he was twenty -three years old he signed his name to 
the following resolution : " By the grace of God, I will 
never be worth over fifty thousand dollars. By the 



54 

grace of God, I will give one fourth of the net profits 
of my business to charitable and religious uses. If I 
am ever worth twenty thousand dollars I will give' one 
half of my net profits; and if I am ever worth thirty 
thousand dollars I will give three fourths; and the 
whole after fifty thousand. So help me God, or give 
to a more faithful steward, and set me aside." It is 
said that he entered business at twenty -one a thousand 
dollars in debt, and died at the age of thirty - six, sup- 
posing himself to be worth fifty thousand dollars, and 
having given away forty thousand dollars. This was a 
very large amount for those days. Not only the Edu- 
cation Society but Newton Theological Institution, and 
many other objects, enjoyed his generosity. His ex- 
ample had a great influence on other minds, and Mr. 
Thresher often took pleasure in referring to it in later 
years. But while he had such excellent helpers, to Mr. 
Thresher's untiring efforts must be given a large part of 
the credit of what was accomplished. His largest salary 
in the service of the society was eight hundred dollars. 
A portion of the time it was less, and one year he 
served gratuitously. 

His own experience had fitted him to seek out young 
men contending with poverty and to sympathize with 
them most deeply. When in the list of- those with 
whom he was thus brought into relation as an adviser 
we find the names of such honored workers at home or 
abroad as Sewell S. Cutting, Josiah Gocldard, Dura D. 



00 

Pratt, Joseph G. Binney, Samuel B. Swaim, and S. S. 
Greene among those who have died, and among those 
who are still living several widely known in the denom- 
ination as successful pastors, missionaries, or educators, 
Ave are impressed by the wide range of his influence and 
of the value of the investments which the society at his 
suggestions made. One at the head of an important in- 
stitution wrote to him a year or. two before his death: 
"My acquaintance with you is of longer standing than 
that with any other living man. I met you the first 
morning I arrived in Boston. I was then in rather a 
sad plight. I had had a rough passage by sea, and had 
taken cold. I knew nobody and had little money. I 
was a stranger and you took me in. As long as I was 
a student I found a welcome at your house. I often 
wonder why such an adventurer should meet with so 
much kindness at the hands of such persons as your- 
self, Dr. and Mrs. Sharp, Prof. Ripley, and President 
Wayland. I trust you have not forgotton how to beg. 
If you had not been somewhat skilled in that not very 
agreeable business I should not have been here ; for 
without help I never could have obtained the little 
knowledge I have acquired." Another, now among the 
oldest and best esteemed Baptist ministers in Ohio, 
writes: "I knew him in my childhood days. I was 
encouraged by him to preach Christ's Gospel. In my 
early ministry in Massachusetts he was my friend 
and counselor." Much more such testimony might be 



56 

gathered. In view of the decrease in the number of 
students for the ministry in proportion to the enlarge- 
ment of the denomination, the question arises whether 
more such personal service as Mr. Thresher rendered 
ought not now to be employed. Is there not too great a 
disposition to wait for candidates to offer themselves for 
the ministry instead of seeking out suitable ones and 
suggesting to them a course of education for this pur- 
pose ? In one of his published reports he has marked 
with his pencil a quotation which he ascribes to Martin 
Luther: "If ever there be any considerable blow given 
to the kingdom of Satan it must be by well educated 
young men." 

Indeed, he brought forward not only beneficiaries but 
benefactors. He engaged the sympathy of many who 
afterward became strong helpers. The Young Men's 
Baptist Education Society of Boston, which had existed 
since 1819, as well as similar organizations recently 
formed in other cities, furnished him valuable opportuni- 
ties which he was quick to improve. With the encour- 
agement of himself and his co-laborers this society had 
public meetings in the churches, when sermons and other 
addresses were delivered by distinguished members of the 
denomination, and much enthusiasm was manifested. On 
one such occasion, in the Federal Street meeting-house, 
when Messrs. Thresher, Knowles, and Stow had spoken, 
contributions were pledged to the amount of more than 
one thousand dollars. How many of the young laymen 



in our city churches to -(lay have interest enough in 
ministerial education to hold such meetings for its di- 
rect promotion ? The late Gardner Colby, who was a 
member of that young men's society, who was treasurer 
of the Education Society from 1839 to 1845, and whose 
name is so associated with some of our institutions of 
learning, used to say that he owed the beginnings of his 
interest in this subject to the appeals of Mr. Thresher. 
He referred to the time when he was scarcely out of 
his p minority and a member of the Baptist church in 
Charlestown. He was urged by Mr. Thresher to. un- 
dertake the collection in that church of one hundred 
and fifty dollars, the amount of two scholarships. He 
cheerfully accepted the service, and accomplished it on 
Thanksgiving day when he was released from the store 
where he was employed. He gave five dollars of it 
himself, which was a large contribution for him at that 
time. He never ceased to hold in the highest esteem 
the man who had thus enlisted him in the cause of 
education. 

Reference has already been made to the fact that Mr. 
Thresher's secretaryship in the Northern Baptist Educa- 
tion Society brought him at the same time into other 
enterprises promotive of intelligence and strength in the 
denomination. He felt it to be his duty to advocate 
good learning in every way and was glad to avail him- 
self of the press. In 1831 and 1832 he edited The Ameri- 
can Baptist Magazine. This periodical, the oldest in the 



58 

denomination, had been commenced, with the word 
"Massachusetts" in the place of "American" on its title 
page, as early as 1803, but since 1826 it had been the 
organ of the Triennial Convention. Although it after- 
ward became The Baptist Missionary Magazine, its contents 
at the time of which we speak were of quite a miscel- 
laneous character, being largely biographical sketches of 
distinguished ministers and laymen, essays, reviews, let- 
ters, and journals. Mr. Thresher accepted the appoint- 
ment of editor because, as he said, it gave him an 
opportunity both to promote the cause of education and 
to become familiar with our foreign missions. During 
these years many communications appeared in its pages 
from Judson, Boardman, Wade, and other early mission- 
aries, which were read with great interest among the 
churches. Especially may be mentioned Francis Mason's 
account of the death of Boardman. The editor was al- 
lowed to have an educational department, which an 
examination of the pages shows he well improved. 
Among other interests in this line, Newton Theological 
Institution is often advocated. In the number for Feb- 
ruary, 1832, is a plan for supporting tAVO professorships 
in the institution by raising a sinking fund of twenty 
thousand dollars to be expended, principal and interest, 
in twenty years. Before that, the professors had been 
supported by annual contributions from churches and 
individuals. It had been a part of Mr. Thresher's work 
to beg the necessary amount the previous year, and he 



59 

had found that it stood greatly in the way of raising the 
money necessary for the young men who were students 
The new plan was successfully accomplished, securing 
a salary of eight hundred dollars to each professorship 
for a series of years. 

He was also editor of The Christian Watchman from 
November, 1834, to December, 1836. Writing many years 
afterward to the editor of that paper he says: "I had 
occasionally contributed articles which had introduced 
me to the favor of Deacon James Loring, who had 
edited the paper from its origin up to that time. A 
practical printer, he was also a judicious and able 
editor, who commanded universal respect. He had now 
become old and had determined to retire from public 
service. He was hastened to this conclusion by the 
feverish condition of the public mind upon the subject 
of slavery. In the Xew England states there were two 
parties, the extreme and the moderate Abolitionists, 
which antagonized each other sometimes with extreme 
bitterness, so that it became exceedingly difficult for a 
fair-minded editor to give satisfaction to either party. 
Deacon Loring besought me to take his place, which I 
consented to do, retaining my connection with the Edu- 
cation Society. He withdrew his name as editor No- 
vember 14, 1834, when my services commenced ; but my 
name did not appear as editor till January, 1836. Wil- 
liam Nichols, a practical printer, was both proprietor 
and publisher of the paper at that time. He was a 



60 

worthy but sensitive Christian man, and the care of 
the paper in those exciting days proved too much for 
his nervous system to bear. The extreme Abolitionists 
originated The Christian Reflector, which antagonized The 
Watchman, and became a competitor for the patronage 
which was only sufficient then to give a scanty sup- 
port to one paper. Mr. Nichols was perpetually harassed 
with the fear that he was about to lose both his repu- 
tation and his small fortune, all of which he had in- 
vested in the paper. He became so unhappy that I 
proposed to him to purchase it, which I did, paying him 
the sum of four thousand dollars, which was thought 
to be a fair price. He had become so shattered that 
he was obliged to seek rest in seclusion. After a period, 
hoAvever, he returned to his friends in Boston, who, 
hoping that employment at his former business would 
then contribute to his restoration, proposed to me to 
recon vey the paper to him, which I did, and for the 
'same price which I had given him for it. I then left 
the editorial chair and was succeeded by Rev. William 
Crowell. Another cause of public excitement which 
gave an editor no little labor in 1836 was the subject 
of Bible distribution in heathen lands, a subject sprung 
upon the denomination by the vote of the American 
Bible Society discriminating against the versions made 
by our missionaries. So you see, Mr. Editor, that I was 
called upon to navigate a very stormy sea; and I con- 
gratulate you on the privilege of sailing on smoother 



61 

waters, and yet upon waters, it may be, which require 
a pretty sharp lookout." 

The file of The Watchman for that period brings be- 
fore us the men and scenes of half a century ago. 
Besides its chronicle of news from the churches, of re- 
vivals, dedications, ordinations, and various public meet- 
ings, the principal speakers at which have since left 
noble records, it has strong editorials upon the subjects of 
education, — always prominent, — Christian benevolence, 
and the. slavery question. It prints the messages of 
Andrew Jackson, president of the United States, and 
Edward Everett, governor of Massachusetts. It speaks 
of various addresses by Drs. Cox and Hoby, a deputa- 
tion from the English Baptists to their brethren in this 
country ; indorses the personal appeals of President Pratt 
and Professor Carter in behalf of the young Literary 
and Theological Institution at Granville, Ohio; deplores 
the work of the mob which had assailed a meeting- 
held at the rooms of the Anti- slavery Society on Wash- 
ington Street, and from which William L. Garrison, being 
the chief speaker, barely escaped with his life: describes 
the farewell services at the sailing of twenty missionaries 
at one time, among whom were the Ingalls, the Haswells. 
the Days. E. L. Abbott, and Miss Macomber, besides other 
earnest laborers, and who were accompanied by Rev. 
Howard Malcom on his visit to the mission -stations in 
Asia; laments the deaths of William Carey, Bela Jacobs, 
Luther Rice, and Joseph Grafton; and records Dr. 



62 

Shurtleff's gift to the college at Alton, Illinois. In 
regard to the action of the American Bible Society in 
1836, above referred to, there are full discussions. ' The 
editor shared in the aggrieved feelings of the denomi- 
nation, but counseled a continuance on the part of 
Baptists to participate in the home work of that so- 
ciety if possible, suggested that- the distribution of the 
Scriptures in other lands could be made an auxiliary 
department of our foreign missions, and deprecated the 
formation of the "American and Foreign Bible Society" 
by Baptists as hasty if not altogether unnecessary — 
opinions which he continued to hold without any ma- 
terial modification to the end of his life. 

In 1836, after Mr. Thresher's retirement from The 
Watchman, The Christian Review was started. The Bap- 
tist Magazine was thenceforth to be devoted exclusively 
to missionary subjects, and it was thought by the Bap- 
tist Ministerial Conference of Massachusetts a good time 
for the beginning of a more scholarly periodical in the 
interests of the denomination. Stock in the enterprise 
was subscribed for, and an association formed, which 
appointed an executive committee of five to superin- 
tend the work. Ebenezer Thresher is the first name on 
that committee. Thomas Edmands was made chairman 
and Caleb Parker secretary. Professor J.~D. Knowles 
of Newton Theological Institution accepted the posi- 
tion of editor. His ability gave it at once a place 
among the best religious quarterlies. Mr. Thresher took 



63 

pains to advocate it in connection with the interests 
of education, and letters preserved by him show that 
he had an important part in its early affairs. For 
twenty -six years it continued to be published under 
different editors and to be an able exponent of Baptist 
principles, filling the position which The Baptist Quarterly 
Review now occupies. 

Mr. Thresher was a delegate to the Baptist Triennial 
Convention in 1835 and onward. The year referred to was 
a notable one in the history of our foreign missions. 
The Convention met at Richmond, Virginia. He left Bos- 
ton on Monday afternoon, April 19, in company with his 
ministerial brethren, Messrs. Bolles, Stow, Hague, Knowles, 
Leverett, Aldrich, and Deacon Heman Lincoln. The 
last named, he said in his editorial correspondence to 
The Watchman, had given his entire time gratuitously for 
the previous five years to the duties of the treasurership 
for foreign missions. Proceeding to Providence they em- 
barked on a steamboat. Delayed by a fog at Newport they 
had religious services on the boat, as also on subsequent 
evenings. They arrived in Richmond on Thursday night. 
The eloquent Dr. Spencer H. Cone, of Xew York, was 
made president. Great interest was felt in the fraternal 
message brought to the Convention by the English depu- 
tation. The report of the board dwelt upon two events 
of special significance, the completion of the translation 
of the Bible into Burmese by Adoniram Judson, and 
the baptism of J. G. Oncken and his companions by 



64 

Rev. Barnas Sears in Germany. The former fact was 
the occasion of profound gratitude. The latter was the 
beginning of a work the greatness of which none could 
then foresee. It was at the same meeting of the Con- 
vention that Rev. Amos Sutton, a missionary of the 
General Baptist Missionary Society of England to Orissa 
in southern India, was introduced and cordially wel- 
comed. By his appeals the board was induced to send 
missionaries that year to the Teloogoos — the first glim- 
mer of that "Lone Star" which has now become so 
large a constellation. Mr. Thresher was a member of the 
Board of Managers of the Convention and of the "Act- 
ing Board" (now the "Executive Committee") from 1841 
to 1845. He therefore participated in the anxieties and 
discussions which agitated the board at that time. The 
slavery question was greatly disturbing the co-operation 
of the northern and the southern churches in the work. 
The unwillingness of the extreme antislavery men in 
the denomination to receive into the treasury "the 
known avails of slavery" led to the formation by them 
in 1840 of a " Provisional Foreign Missionary Commit- 
tee," and, three years later, of the Baptist Free Mission 
Society. These movements, of course, greatly embarassed 
the operation of the board in Boston until, in 1845, 
the southern Baptists withdrew and formed the Southern 
Baptist Convention, and the work at the north was re- 
organized under the name of "The American Baptist 
Missionary Union " Mr. Thresher continued to have a 



65 

part in these exciting cares until near their culmina- 
tion, when failing health compelled him to resign. 

At the same time with the interests just mentioned 
and those of the Education Society, Newton Theological 
Institution continued to receive much of his attention. 
He had been one of its trustees since 1836. In No- 
vember, 1843, the trustees solicited his exclusive services 
in behalf of the finances of the institution, but the 
Board of the Education Society were of the opinion 
that he could serve both causes, which he therefore en- 
deavored to do. In May, 1844, he reported that he had 
succeeded in obtaining for the library of the institution 
a subscription of one thousand dollars per annum for 
five years. A day or two before die made this report. 
Deacon Levi Farwell, with whom he was very intimate, 
and who had for many years given his mind and heart 
to caring for all the affairs of the institution, had died. 
At the next meeting of the trustees Mr. Thresher was 
requested to succeed him in the office of treasurer, which 
was at that time one of peculiar difficulties. There Avere 
the buildings, farm, and steward to be looked after, 
difficulties arising from the boarding of the students 
in commons to be settled, and the board bills of the 
students to be regularly collected. The salaries of the 
professors were inadequate, the property was incumbered 
with mortgages, and the funds were rapidly decreasing. 
All this imposed much care and labor on the treasurer. 
Air. Thresher's health did not permit him to accept a 



66 

permanent election, but he performed the duties for one 
year, when he was succeeded by Gardner Colby. Thus 
he added to the very practical and important services 
already mentioned as rendered by him to the institu- 
tion in earlier years. He never ceased to cherish a deep 
interest in it. In this connection it should also be 
mentioned that he was one of the Board of Trustees of 
Brown University from 1842 to 1848. 

During the time of his connection with these different 
public interests in New England he had resided at first 
in Boston, a member of Doctor Sharp's church, and af- 
terward in Roxbury, where he belonged to the Dudley 
Street Baptist Church, then under the pastoral care of 
Doctor Caldicott. But he belonged to the cause at large 
as well as to a particular church ; and although he had 
been early laid aside from the pastorate, we have seen 
how Providence had overruled this affliction for the 
wide extension of his ministry. Says Dr. J. X. Mur- 
dock : "Few men living or dead have left more benifi- 
cent traces on the lines of our denominational life and 
progress in New England than Ebenezer Thresher. If 
the present generation of New England Baptists knew 
him not, it is because the great body of the noble and 
sainted men with whom he wrought preceded him to 
the better land." 



In the summer of 1845 an entirely new period com- 
menced in Mr. Thresher's life. The scene changed from 



67 

the East to the West, from the work of the ministry to 
a secular occupation. His numerous labors had again 
broken down his health. He had become unable to 
speak in public on account of the great weakness of his 
voice, and had grown so feeble that he was thought by 
his friends to be fast failing with consumption. His 
physicians expressed grave doubts whether his life could 
be prolonged a year in the climate of Xew England. 
but held out a faint hope that an entire change might 
be of some benefit. It was therefore to him a season 
of disappointment and anxiety. For a second time now 
Providence had apparently closed the path of usefulness 
he had entered, and he knew not that he could accom- 
plish anything more. Forced to -part from many dear 
friends and associations, and to drop all the responsi- 
bilities in which his heart had been so much engaged, 
he determined to visit Ohio, whither an older brother 
had gone many years before, and where he had other 
acquaintances. Hoping almost against hope, he left his 
family in Roxbury and proceeded on his journey. He 
seems to have gone to Cincinnati by the way of Balti- 
more. The railroad was completed as far as Cumberland, 
Maryland. The route thence was over the mountains 
by stage to the Ohio river, then by boat to his destina- 
tion. He had some thought of entering on the culture 
of fruit as an occupation giving him an opportunity to 
work in the open air. At Covington, near Cincinnati, 
he found his friend, Dr. R. E. Pattison, whom he had 



68 

known in Providence, Rhode Island. After visiting Cin- 
cinnati, he was induced for some reason to go to Day- 
ton on the Miami Canal, and as he approached' this 
city he fell into conversation with a congenial fellow- 
traveler, Mr. Samuel Forrer, who was well known at 
that time as an engineer of public works, and who re- 
sided at Dayton. He thus obtained a favorable idea of 
the place as one in which to locate. It had been in- 
corporated as a city four years before, and had about ten 
thousand inhabitants. The hydraulic canal, for water- 
power purposes, was completed the same year in which 
Mr. Thresher came. He soon made his arrangements 
for a prolonged stay, little thinking, however, that he 
would be spared to have this as his home for more 
than forty years. He found in the city an earnest and 
growing Baptist church, then under the pastoral care of 
Rev. Frederick Snyder, whose ministry is remembered 
as one of great devotion. Mr. E. E. Barney, whose in- 
tellectual culture, as well as his Christian earnestness, 
had made him a leading member of the church, was 
the owner at that time of a saw -mill on Wayne Street. 
He had been a tutor at Granville and the principal of 
the Dayton Academy, but had been engaged now in 
this business for three or four years for the recovery 
of his health. As the Cooper Seminary for "young ladies 
had just been established, and his former success as a 
teacher had directed the minds of its founders to him as 
the only suitable man for its principal, he was ready to 



69 

sell out his mill and lumber business to Mr. Thresher. 
By this arrangement, to which he was assisted by his 
wife, Mr. Thresher hoped to give himself the physical 
and open-air exercise which he felt he most needed. 
The result was such as to equal his most ardent hopes 
and to disappoint most happily the fears of his friends. 
By great prudence together with diligent and cheerful 
employment he gradually improved, and in two or three 
years regarded himself as very nearly a well man, 
though the feebleness of his voice precluded all plans 
of his again entering the ministry. 

When his arrangements and purposes became settled, 
he left his oldest son, whom he had brought with him, 
and went east for the rest of his family, who had been 
boarding during his absence at NeAvton Center. Mean- 
while the canal had been completed between Dayton 
and Toledo. On the journey westward, therefore, they 
came by rail as far as Buffalo, thence by steamboat on 
Lake Erie, and to Dayton by packet on the canal. 
They stopped for a time at the old Montgomery House, 
then the principal hotel; but soon they went to house- 
keeping on Jefferson Street, opposite Market. He felt 
that his life was now to be in the line of business, and 
he prosecuted it with great zest, resolved to use what- 
ever prosperity he might gain to further the sacred in- 
terests to which at first he had consecrated his strength. 
He traveled up and down the canal, visiting the forests 
with ax -men, measuring and buying standing timber, 



70 

which he transported to his mill. He also brought to 
Dayton a great deal of lumber from Michigan. The 
business prospered and increased until the city de- 
termined to make a change in the channels for the 
water. He then found it necessary to look about for 
some better opportunity for business enterprise. 

About three years after his coming to Dayton he 
found an occasion to call out his old zeal for ministerial 
education. It was in the counsels of the Western Bap- 
tist Education Society. This society, the organization 
of which with the advice of Rev. Jonathan Going in 
1834 has already been referred to, had opened, the same 
year in which Mr. Thresher came to Ohio, a theological 
seminary at Covington, on the south side of the Ohio 
river, opposite- Cincinnati. Drs. R. E. Pattison and E. G. 
Robinson were the professors. But in the very year it 
opened occurred the separation of northern and southern 
Baptists in their foreign missionary work on account of 
slavery, and Dr. Pattison's opinion was at once chal- 
lenged by the Baptists of the south-west in regard to 
certain decisions of the missionary board at Boston- 
Refusing to repudiate those decisions he was denounced 
as an Abolitionist, and before long an amendment to the 
charter of the institution was passed by the legislature 
of Kentucky, putting it into the hands of- a new board 
of sixteen trustees and giving its control entirely to 
men in that state. The Western Baptist Education 
Society felt this to be a great injustice, claimed that 



71 

there should be at least an equitable division of the 
property, and immediately took steps for the establish- 
ment of another theological seminary for the north-west. 
In the convention which met at Cincinnati in Octo- 
ber, 1849, to consider this exciting matter, we find Mr. 
Thresher an active participant. When he settled at 
Dayton his old friend, Dr. Pattison, had written to him, 
expressing regret that he had not decided on Cincin- 
nati as his residence, that they might continue their 
intimacy. But he had been near enough to take a deep 
interest in what had transpired. He was now brought 
into co-operation with Rev. John Stevens, for so many 
years before and afterward a leading spirit in all educa- 
tional movements and the corresponding secretary of the 
society, with Rev. John L. Moore, so beloved for his ferv- 
ent and self-denying ministry, with Judge A. H. Dun- 
levy, Revs. Daniel Bryant, Silas Bailey, 0. X. Sage, D. B. 
Cheney, Daniel Shepardson, S. B. Page, and others, with 
most of whom he afterward labored many years in 
building up the cause of Christ in Ohio. A company of 
gentlemen had been formed who propose to purchase 
land at Fairmount, near the city, and to donate thirty 
acres of it to the society, provided buildings and im- 
provements costing not less than fifteen thousand dollars 
were completed within three years, and provided also 
the Executive Committee loaned or caused to be loaned 
to the company ten thousand dollars for five years. Mr. 
Thresher was made chairman of the Committee on Min- 



72 

isterial Education, who recommended immediate meas- 
ures to raise the sum of fifty thousand dollars. He 
offered cheerfully to bear his portion of the pucuniary 
responsibility. "We must go forward," he said, "and 
not backward." After addresses by Rev. Alfred Bennett 
and Dr. Nathaniel Colver (who were visitors), Rev. John 
Stevens and others, the members of the convention rode 
in omnibuses to Fairmount and viewed the site of the 
institution their hopes were picturing. Many difficul- 
ties, however, beset the enterprise. The men engaged in 
it were liberal, but it was hard at that time to raise so 
much money. The seminary was opened at last in 
a new building in October, 1853, with Rev Edmund 
Turney and Rev. Marsena Stone as professors. It had 
seventeen students the first year, and graduated some 
efficient ministers. But the plan upon which it was 
founded awakened some prejudices, and after a few 
years it was obliged to succumb to financial failure. Mr. 
Thresher was a member of the Executive Committee of 
the Western Baptist Education Society for several years. 
Nor did his interest diminish when the work was trans- 
ferred, in 1856, to the Ohio Baptist Education Society, of 
which he was a firm friend and valued counselor to the 
last, He also joined his brethren in the annual gather- 
ings of the Dayton Association and Ohio "Baptist Con- 
vention till the infirmities of age began to increase; and 
for some time he participated in the cares of the quar- 
terly meetings of the Convention board. 



73 

About five years after coming to Dayton he purchased 
of the Cooper estate some land on the north-eastern 
border of the city, and proposed to Mr. Barney, who was 
then thinking of retiring from the work of teaching, to 
form a copartnership for carrying on a manufacturing 
business. Mr. Barney agreed to the plan. They were 
not sure at first what they would manufacture, but after 
Mr. Thresher had made a visit to the East it was de- 
cided to make railroad cars. There were then no rail- 
roads finished to Dayton ; but one connecting the city 
with Springfield was in process of grading, and there 
was reason to believe that the future demand for cars 
would warrant the building of a factory. His old 
friends in the East had reason to be surprised when he, 
to whom they had bidden good -by as to an invalid 
preacher, again appeared among them engaging skilled 
mechanics to go west to build cars in a place where 
there was scarcely a railroad. The style of the firm at 
first was Thresher, Packard & Company. His partner, 
whose name appeared, had come from the East. Mr. 
Barney was also a partner from the outset, but it was 
agreed that at first he should be only a silent one, as 
the seminary had a claim upon his time for a year 
longer. At the end of that year his silent partnership 
became an active one, and about that time, or soon after, 
Mr. Packard retired. The first building was erected in 
1850, Mr. Thresher giving his personal attention to 
the business. They at first made agricultural imple- 



74 

ments, and afterward railroad cars. Their capital at the 
outset was ten thousand dollars. When Mr. Thresher 
went east for mechanics he brought to Dayton several 
men who not only proved useful in the business but 
who afterward became the proprietors of other manu- 
facturing establishments; for example, Messrs. Woodsum, 
Tenny, Lelancl, and Tower. The first car built was 
shipped to its destination on a canal -boat. And the 
work went on, the retired minister and the retired 
school-teacher building up a manufacturing interest of 
prime importance, and showing that their professional 
labors had not unfitted them for business success. They 
secured the confidence and esteem of all with whom 
they had dealings, while their cars became known for 
the excellence of their material and workmanship. The 
works thus founded, and at the head of which Mr. 
Barney continued until his death, have grown into a 
large establishment of great advantage to the city of 
Dayton, often employing OA T er twelve hundred men. 

Mr. Thresher had been engaged in the car -works, how- 
ever, only six years when the increase of care again 
proved too much for his health, and he sold out his 
interest to Mr. Caleb Parker, whom he had known well 
as a deacon in the Baptist Church at Roxbury, Massa- 
chusetts. Another valuable worker and leader was thus 
secured for the church in Dayton for many years. Mr. 
Thresher's name was connected with the business one 
year afterward. He then permanently retired from it, 



lb 

and, in 1859, associated himself with Mr. Charles F. 

Tower, who had come from Massachusetts six years 
before, and with his nephew, Mr. J. B. Thresher, in 
establishing a manufactory of varnish. He continued 
in this line of business with a good degree of success 
until he retired, January 1, 1874, when he was in his 
seventy -sixth year. So diligent and enterprising was 
he in these relations that many who had not known 
his earlier career never imagined that he had not al- 
ways been a business man. He was careful and strict, 
plain in his manner of living, shrewd in making bar- 
gains, persistent in pursuing his aims, and far-seeing in 
his discernment of what might be profitable. He was 
disappointed at one time in his' failure to secure the 
starting of locomotive works at Dayton. Finding that 
skillful mechanics in that line of work could be secured 
from the East, he commended the matter to some of his 
fellow -citizens who had capital. But though a proposi- 
tion was made and some negotiations took place, no 
sufficient determination to take hold of the suggestion 
was developed, and it resulted in nothing. 

During the war Dayton was distracted by greatly 
imbittered parties and witnessed some exciting scenes. 
The burning of the office of the Republican newspaper 
by a mob, and the arrest of Vallandigham at night by 
General Burnside's soldiers took place in the immediate 
neighborhood of Mr. Thresher's residence, but, while he 
was earnestly loyal to the Government, he sought no 



76 

prominence in the conflict. The health of his wife at 
this time was very poor. She continued for a long- 
while an invalid. Her oldest daughter, Elizabeth, had 
preceded her to the better world. In August, 1860, she 
died, leaving two sons and three daughters. To her 
affectionate sympathy and aid he had been much in- 
debted throughout his career " She was one," said her 
pastor, Rev. Samson Talbot, "whose intelligence and 
piety were of the greatest value to the church." 

In November, 1861, he was married to Mrs. Martha 
Snyder. She was the widow of Rev. Frederick Snyder 
(already mentioned as pastor of the Baptist Church 
when Mr. Thresher came to Dayton), and was residing 
in the city with her three children. Her thoughtful 
and cheerful spirit adapted her to the new relation into 
which she now entered. For twenty -three years she 
presided in his home, making it still a scene of at- 
tractive Christian hospitality and entering heartily into 
Christian work. 

Mr. Thresher became a trustee of Denison University 
in 1857. He could not be true to the cause he had 
early espoused without taking a deep interest in its af- 
fairs. In Mr. Barney, also, he found a friend and trus- 
tee of the university who was ready to talk with him 
concerning its field and necessities. A year or two before 
this, the institution had been removed from the farm 
to its present beautiful site overlooking the town, and 
its name had been changed from Granville College. 



Rev. Jeremiah Hall, D. D., was then president. A new 
brick building had been erected, and some funds had 
been collected ; but many difficulties were experienced 
and the university was running in debt. Soon the 
war came on, absorbing public attention and depressing- 
all educational enterprises In 1863 its affairs were felt 
by the trustees to be in a very precarious condition. 
Rev. Samson Talbot, an alumnus of the institution and 
the pastor of the Baptist Church in Dayton, was called 
to the presidency and accepted it with a consecrated 
spirit. Much self-denying work was before him; but 
he had noble fellow -laborers in the faculty and was sure 
of the sympathy and co-operation of some of his lead- 
ing parishioners in Dayton, and of many other Baptists 
in the state. Though the property of the university had 
increased in value in ten years from less than fourteen 
thousand dollars to about fifty thousand, and though the 
payment of the debt was provided for, '"the faculty were 
without any visible means of support except the tuition 
fees of the scanty number of students, and that number 
was constantly decreasing by enlistment in the army." 
To meet deficiencies, small contributions began to lie 
asked annually from friends of the university. "Some 
of you." said the president to the trustees at the an- 
nual meeting, ''were asked for ten dollars apiece last 
year; you will be asked for the same this year, and 
the year following, and so on. until you come to this 
conclusion: 'It is not the way to do business: let us 



arise and create a fund for these expenses ! ' And so 
each one of these ten -dollar bills has a twofold mission. 
They meet the expense of instruction, and they be- 
come agents on endowment. God speed them on their 
work ! " 

In October of the same year, notwithstanding the war 
was still in progress, the indorsement of the Ohio Bap- 
tist Convention was secured to an appeal to the denom- 
ination in the state for one hundred thousand dollars 
to constitute a permanent fund, the income of no part 
of which should be used until contributions and interest 
had reached the full amount. The Convention met in 
Dayton, and the motion prevailed with enthusiasm after 
Mr. Thresher had made a strong and earnest speech. 
The month following, President Talbot wrote to him: 
"The enterprise of an endowment grows in magnitude 
as I contemplate it. A good college which shall edu- 
cate the young men of Baptist families, and others not 
of this fold, will be a process of growth at the center, a 
development without which we can not anticipate any- 
thing else than weakness. The meeting at Dayton 
awakened more than common interest and hope in all 
parts of the state We hear of it everywhere. But it 
will require faith and hard work to get the object be- 
fore the minds of all the brethren whose "help will be 
needed. What a blessing does money become to him 
who uses it rightly ! He can make his memory sweet 
in other generations. His example will be worth more 



to his children than all his savings. The Baptists of 
Ohio arc upon trial."* 

That these words expressed also Mr. Thresher's senti- 
ments is evident from the fact that on the subscription 

list his name stands first for ten thousand dollars. It 
was one quarter of all he believed himself to he worth 
at the time he made the subscription. But this repre- 
sents only a part of what he did for the success of the 
undertaking. For four years he gave much careful 
thought. and earnest effort to pushing it on. As he had 
been chief in starting the plan he relaxed no effort till 
it was completed. He used his voice in pleading for 
it in public meetings and in private conversations, and 
his pen in many letters and articles for the press. He 
never became discouraged. The raising of the endow- 
ment was always uppermost in his thoughts till the 
work was done. The names of noble and generous co- 
workers in the enterprise will come to the minds of 
some who read these pages. Mr. Thresher never could 
have succeeded without their co-operation, hut we think 
they all would acknowledge that he was the leading 
means under God of raising the institution out of its 
condition of poverty and weakness into one of perma- 
nence and power. This first substantial addition to its 
funds was soon followed by others, in which the late 
E. E. Barney, and other generous donors who are still 
living, led off. In 1871 another large brick edifice was 
erected. Again and again Mr. Thresher's name appears 



80 

among the contributors. Before his death he had the 
satisfaction of knowing that the university had three 
hundred thousand dollars in well -invested funds besides 
the lands, two excellent brick buildings and a library 
building, the last the generous gift of his friend, Dr. 
W. Howard Doane, of Cincinnati. In the meetings of 
the trustees he was always present, intensely active in 
the discussions till within a year or two of his death. 
He carried the university on his heart, commended it 
to his brethren whom he expected to live after him, 
welcomed to his house only a few days before his depar- 
ture some of the trustees to talk over plans for its 
improvement, and remembered it in his will by a be- 
quest of ten thousand dollars for the establishment of 
scholarships. 

A name so linked with the history of a Christian 
college can not easily be forgotten. It is inscribed on 
foundation stones on which posterity will build. In a 
letter written to him in 1877, Judge T. W. Ewart, of 
Marietta, says; "You are, I hope, well aware of the 
appreciation of your invaluable services in giving per- 
manency to our college in these times which are try- 
ing some institutions that have been prosperous in the 
past, but are greatly straitened at present for the want 
of the wise forecast and liberal planning and labor to 
which Granville owes its freedom from embarrassment." 
Says Dr. S. B. Page, of Cleveland, who labored for a time 
as financial agent of the university, "My acquaintance 



81 

with him began in 1831 when I was on my way to en- 
ter college at Waterville, Maine. I was received kindly 
and invited to his home in Boston. It was, however, 
while engaged in the effort to complete the one hundred 
thousand dollars endowment of our college at Granville, 
which he so wisely and generously originated and put 
in motion, that I came to know and more fully appre- 
ciate him. I always parted from him with augmented 
courage and hope. To him more than to any other 
man must our success be ascribed." Says Dr. E. G. 
Leonard, of Bucyrus, one of the oldest trustees, "But 
for Ebenezer Thresher our college might have existed, 
but it could not have been what it is to-day. Few 
of the men of this generation can" know the extent and 
value of his influence in this regard. Money he has 
generously given, but far more than this has been his 
well-timed counsel and his influence with other noble 
men whose names are a benediction and a blessing." 
Dr. William A. Stevens, now of Rochester, writes : wl In 
the work of the college I came to know him intimately. 
I admired his large wisdom in matters pertaining to 
the denomination. Our college at Granville, and all 
who love it, owe him an incalculable debt of gratitude. 
It was a providential interposition in its history when 
he was impelled to come to its rescue and identify 
himself with its great mission/ 1 In this connection also 
we may be permitted to add a few words from one 
whose name constantly appears with Mi'. Thresher's in 



82 

all the counsels and efforts for the university in its 
most trying times, Hon. J. M. Hoyt, of Cleveland. In 
a letter written to his friend in 1883 he says: "That 
savor of grace which ever pervaded the atmosphere 
around you, that clear-sighted and ever manly faith 
which made you a valued leader in enterprises for the 
furtherance and nurture of righteousness, still have a 
molding power upon me." And since Mr. Thresher's 
death he has written : "I shall ponder often, tenderly, 
joyfully, and instructively upon his inspiring record. I 
am thankful that I knew and loved him." 

In recognition of his greatly useful and long con- 
tinued services to the cause of education the Board of 
Trustees of Denison University conferred upon him, in 
1875, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was 
not a man to think much of titles, hut he was not in- 
sensible to the appreciation of his brethren. He de- 
lighted to meet the Christian men into association with 
whom his love and labor for the college more or less 
brought him. It is worthy of note how many of these 
he survived Samson Talbot, of penetrating intellect 
and most genial spirit, whose early death he greatly 
mourned as an almost irreparable loss to the cause, 
John Stevens, strong in thought and faith and will, 
Eliam E. Barney, vigorous and broad-minded in busi- 
ness and benevolence, T. W. Ewart, judicial and de- 
vout, E. F. Piatt, Orsemus Allen, George F. Davis, 
J. P. Bishop, D. A. Randall, George Cook, and J. W. 



83 

King were among these associates who passed away be- 
fore him. 

When the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was 
removed from Greenville, South Carolina, to Louisville, 
Kentucky, in 1877, he began to feel a deeper sympathy 
with that institution also. This may have been owing 
in part to the personal interest he had felt in some of 
its professors ever since they were young men preparing 
for the ministry. Inducing some of his friends to join 
with him in the gift, he sent for a few years a con- 
siderable sum to aid students at Louisville, and when 
he found it impracticable to continue this annual effort 
he made a generous donation to the endowment. He 
meant this, he said, to express his appreciation, not 
only of all good learning among our Baptist people and 
of the work of that institution, but also of fraternal 
intercommunication between different sections of our 
great country. He gave it, also, in pleasing recollection 
of his early intimacy with some southern students lor the 
ministry when he was in Columbian College. Though 
he could never be called a very wealthy man. his bene- 
factions in private as well as in public Avere constant 
and thoughtful. He never gave as a mere compliance 
with popular enthusiasm; but for educational enter- 
prises, for churches building houses of worship, and 
especially to aid in their studies young men in whom 
were discerned the promise and potency of future use- 



84 

fulness in the ministry or otherwise, his tokens of sym- 
pathy were numerous, generous, and practical. 

About the time he retired from business he built for 
himself a new and pleasant residence upon the site of 
the old one, two doors from the First Baptist Church. 
In this he resided the last fifteen years of his life, inter- 
esting himself in the education of his -two young daugh- 
ters, in the companionship of a large family circle, in 
the events transpiring in the religious world, and in a 
few business investments. Among the last was the en- 
terprise of opening a new avenue through land which he 
had purchased. To this he gave his personal attention, 
completing it two years before his death. 

In his family life he was firm, decided, but affec- 
tionate. He endeavored to impress upon his children 
the fear of God and devotion to his cause. Family 
worship was always observed by him, even to the last 
morning of his life. As a member of the church he 
was habitually present twice on the Lord's day and in 
the weekly prayer -meeting until his infirmities pre- 
vented. In the latter he often spoke or prayed, taking 
broad and hopeful views of the kingdom of Christ. He 
was a thoughtful and sympathizing helper of his pastors 
in Dayton. Not only the two deceased, whose names 
have already been mentioned, but Dr. S. W. Foljambe, 
now of Maiden, Massachusetts, and Dr. H. Harvey, now 
of Madison Theological Seminary, and especially, the 
writer of this memoir found in him a valuable conn- 



85 

sclor. His long observation and ripe experience fitted 
him for this service. Having once been a minister him- 
self, and conscious of his disposition to form and ex- 
press decided opinions, he thought it the more delicate 
prudence not to participate much in the business meet- 
ings of the church. But he wished to be active in its 
spiritual work, and was always ready to testify concern- 
ing the grace of God. 

He was not a voluminous correspondent. The habit 
of his mind was to seize upon practical rather than 
sentimental views of life. But no less pleasing to him 
on that account, in his advancing years, was an occa- 
sional exchange of letters with the friends of earlier 
days. Dr. Barnas Sears wrote to him from Staunton, Vir- 
ginia : "It did me good to meet you at Buffalo and to 
talk over old times when we were young men, and such 
men as Grafton, Batchelder, Shepard, Bollcs, and Sharp 
were the old men. In one thing we may both rejoice, 
the success of what was so near our hearts, ministerial 
education." Robert Ryland and Charles Thurber, the 
former a college mate at Columbian and the other at 
Brown, corresponded with him concerning their old 
classmates. Dr. Jonah G. Warren, from his retirement 
at Newton Center, poured out to him his heart in char- 
acteristic epistles, and Prof. S. S. Greene of Brown Uni- 
versity wrote: "I should be most happy to do you 
any service that lies in my power. I do not forget the 
days long gone by when my course was guided not a 



86 

little by your advice." To such letters his heart warmly 
responded. He greatly enjoyed a few years ago a visit 
from Dr. Ryland, and, more recently, visits from' Dr. 
Basil Manly of the Southern Baptist Theological Sem- 
inary, who says: "My acquaintance with Dr. Thresher 
began more than forty years ago, when I went, in 1844, 
a youth of eighteen, to Newton Theological Institution. 
I found in his delightful family the most cordial recep- 
tion, and the nearest substitute for the Alabama home 
I had left. His warm interest in the institution and 
in all who were connected with it, led him to be con- 
cerned for all students. But he seemed to show me 
special regard, probably because I was the youngest and 
farthest from home. The intimacy then established 
endured and strengthened through all the years, not- 
withstanding our remoteness in distance, and the in- 
frequency of opportunities for meeting." 

He wrote much for the religious press. He felt him- 
self, he said, to be a relic of his own generation, and 
therefore could furnish out of his own early and ex- 
tended acquaintance with religious leaders and organiza- 
tions information and precedents of great value. His 
contributions to the Journal and Messenger would make 
a very large volume. A list of some of their topics 
will recall the nature of their contents; namely, u Deni- 
son University, One Hundred Thousand Dollars Endowment" 
four articles; u Talks About Our College" seven articles; 
"Principles and Practices of Baptist Churches" fifteen arti- 



87 

eles ; "-The American Bible Society and the Baptists" two 
articles; u Thc Relation of Bible Societies to Missions among 
the Heathen" four articles; "Bible Societies, their- History" 
four articles; "Our Denominational Societies, What are They, 
and For What Purpose?" six articles; "The Great Bible 
Question Eliminated" four articles; "Paying for One's Edu- 
cation;" "Denominational Courtesy;" "Responsibility of Ed- 
itors;" "The Church at Antioch;" obituary articles on 
Solomon Peel, J. T. Robert, Barnas Sears, and J. G. Binney ; 
"One Hundred Years Ago;" and a variety of contribu- 
tions on benevolence, denominational principles, and 
methods of missionary organizations. Some of these, 
which were published in series, attracted considerable at- 
tention from thoughtful readers. His outspoken opin- 
ions could not please all, but the historical information 
and sober judgments which the articles contain make 
many of them permanently useful. Those who knew 
the age of the writer wondered at the evidence they 
gave of the prolonged vitality and acumen of his men- 
tal powers. Several occupying positions of great re- 
sponsibility in the denomination kindly wrote to him 
expressing their gratitude for the service he had ren- 
dered with his pen. 

On the twenty -fifth of June, 1884, he was again be- 
reaved by the death of his wife. He was now nearly 
eighty -six years of age, and had great need of her 
thoughtful and tender care. She lived until their two 
daughters had completed their course in school, and, 



88 

almost immediately after, was taken ill with the dis- 
ease of which in a few days she died, greatly lamented 
by a large and loving circle of friends. Several times 
in his life he had been called to pass through deep af- 
fliction. Besides the cases already referred to in these 
pages, the deaths of Mrs. Mary L. Stilwell and Mrs. 
Sarah N. Crawford, who were his daughters, had brought 
great sorrow to his heart. In all these trials his faith 
in God had sustained him. That faith did not falter 
now, though the blow of this last affliction fell upon 
him when he was carrying the weight of years. The 
remarkable vigor of his faculties and the sympathizing 
attentions of the two daughters in his home, as well as 
of others, helped him to bear up under his grief. As 
cheerfully as possible, he maintained the spirit with 
which he first received the announcement to him of 
her departure: "I had confidently expected that she 
would see me through ; but God has ordered otherwise, 
and I submit." He had always delighted to welcome 
public Christian workers to his house ; and especially 
now did he enjoy the visit of his friend Rev. William 
Ashmore, D. D., for thirty -five years a missionary to 
China, whom he had invited to spend the winter un- 
der his roof. 

With the exception of some deafness he* retained to 
the end, to a remarkable degree, his physical and mental 
powers, reading in his library, walking to market, to 
the homes of his relatives and their places of business, 

L.ofC. 



89 

He made a journey to Granville about three months 
before his death, and returned alone. He wished no one 
to wait upon him. He would attend to his affairs him- 
self, and no one could affirm that his mind was not clear 
enough for the purpose. Only at intervals did it betray 
any weakness. We shall not forget his venerable appear- 
ance, his snow-white hair and earnest look, as, swinging 
his cane more as a precaution than as a support, he 
moved briskly along the sidewalk. He expressed his 
thoughts clearly and decidedly, and, unlike many aged 
persons, talked not merely of the past but of things that 
need to be done. The day before his death he was upon 
the streets apparently in his usual vigor. On the morn- 
ing of January 12, 1886, he sat at the breakfast table and 
afterward in his library, cheerfully conversing with his 
daughter. At the family worship that morning, with un- 
realized appropriateness, the seventh chapter of the Eeve- 
lation had been read, closing with the words: "Therefore 
are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and 
night in his temple : and he that sitteth on the throne 
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on 
them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the 
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead 
them unto living fountains of waters : and God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes." His own voice 
had led them as usual in simple petitions at the Throne 
of Grace. He had spoken of walking out, but had been 



90 

dissuaded by his daughter on account of the severity 
of the weather. Before noon he expected to ride to a 
meeting of some gentlemen on business in which he 
was interested. No premonition of approaching death 
was observable till he suddenly complained of feeling 
ill and almost immediately became unconscious. Lying 
upon a lounge in the library where . he had so often 
entertained his visitors, he lingered for an hour. or two, 
during which his loved ones gathered sorrowfully around 
him, and then he gently breathed his Jast. The mes- 
senger he had long been expecting had come suddenly. 
Paralysis had stopped the functions of life when his 
mind was clear and his heart was peaceful. Thus his 
family were spared the distress of witnessing a lingering 
illness. Comparatively without physical pain he left 
them, and went "to be with Christ, which is far better." 
He lived a long life — eighty -seven years, four months, 
and twelve days. He was born before the death of 
George Washington. He lived under the administration 
of every other president of the United States. He was 
spared to see the population of the land multiplied 
tenfold. In his childhood there were no railroads, no 
cheap postal -system, no ocean steamships, no electric 
telegraphs, no Sunday -schools, no religious newspapers, 
and none of the "vast improvements, material or moral, 
which these have brought in their train. He. survived 
to watch the passing by of an immense procession of 
his fellow -men. Scarcely ever before in the history of 



91 

the world have eighty-seven years included so many 
and such sublime events as he was permitted to wit- 
ness. 

And now little need be added to that view of his 
character which the mere story of his life presents. 
We have seen that he was a man of independent judg- 
ment and persistent will. Slow in forming his opinions, 
he yet formed them thoughtfully and strongly, and then 
adhered to them to the end. Nor did he hesitate to 
declare- them in the most outspoken manner. In this 
he may sometimes have seemed partial and severe. The 
very qualities which made him so strong may at times 
have made him exacting and autocratic. Some may have 
thought him overeonservative. But he was remarka- 
bly broad-minded and progressive in all his thoughts 
and plans for the interests of truth and righteousness. 
He believed in laying foundations deep and building 
for the future. He thus kept his heart young, and was 
an encouragement to others to go on and do more. 
While the directness and strong feeling with which he 
pursued his chosen aims were not always pleasing to 
others, and may at times have prejudiced his mind, con- 
versation with him always disclosed a desire to be just, 
and his life as a whole was marked with great courtesy 
and kindness. 

His faith in Christ was humble and tender. In 1882 
he wrote to Dr. Ryland : "In recent years Christ has 
been increasingly exalted in my thoughts and affections 



92 

as I have contemplated his marvelous work of redemp- 
tion, and my relation to him as a sinner saved. It 
has seemed to me that all that he did and suffered was 
necessary for my salvation. Yet so marvelous is his 
grace, that 'he is able also to save them to the utter- 
most that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth 
to make intercession for them.' I feel a constant need 
of his forgiving mercy. This also has been to me 
a comforting promise: 'Because I live, ye shall live 
also.' " Such Christian convictions and hopes had much 
to do in shaping Dr. Thresher's whole course. The doc- 
trines of grace furnished motives to his conduct. "De- 
lighting in the law of the Lord," he was "like a tree 
planted by the rivers of water." This world would be 
a happy place if as much loyalty to Christ could be 
found in all lives as he was wont to manifest. A large 
number can adopt as an expression of their own feel- 
ings regarding him the language of President Alvah 
Hovey, who writes: "My own acquaintance with him 
has been a source of unalloyed pleasure to me. His 
sound judgment, his consistent piety, his warm interest 
in missions, his just appreciation of Christian educa- 
tion, his broad and enlightened views on all the great 
questions that concern the kingdom of God and the 
welfare of mankind, made his conversation delightful 
and profitable; and his brave and hopeful spirit was at 
all times inspiring." 

The funeral took place on the afternoon of Thursday, 



93 

January 14, 1886. Dr. WJlliam Ashmore offered a prayer 
at the house. Then the casket was borne to the church 
close by, where a large audience had assembled of the 
relatives, business associates, church -members, and friends 
of the deceased, and where it was placed before the pul- 
pit between ripe sheaves and with a crown of flowers 
upon it. Dr. Basil Manly of the Southern Baptist Theo- 
logical Seminary, and President Alfred Owen of Denison 
University participated in the services. The pastor of 
the deceased paid a loving tribute to his memory, ap- 
propriate hymns were sung, and afterward the remains 
were borne to their resting-place in Woodland Cemetery. 
To two sons and three daughters surviving him he 
has left the precious legacy of his Christian counsel and 
example. " Being dead, he yet speciketh." Through these 
pages may his life speak, as well as in the memories of 
those who knew him ! It is a profitable thing to trace 
the path of such a man. In our endeavor to do so 
we have glanced also at many other "foot -prints on 
the sands of time" — foot -prints which, like his, direct 
us to the " city that hath foundations, whose builder 
and maker is God." 



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